Paris Attacker's Father Would Have Killed Own Son

The father of newly identified Paris attacker Foued Mohamed-Aggad says he didn't know his son had returned to France—and if he had known what he was planning, he would have killed his own son to prevent it. "I would have killed him myself beforehand," Said Mohamed-Aggad told AFP after his son was named as one of three attackers who massacred 90 people in the Bataclan concert hall. "I have no words, I only found out this morning." The younger Mohamed-Aggad, 23, who was born and raised in France, was one of a group of men who traveled to Syria from the Strasbourg area in 2013. His father says he was brainwashed by extremists, reports CNN, which notes that the other two Bataclan attackers were also French citizens who had traveled to the Middle East.

The gunman's mother went to authorities after receiving a chilling text message, apparently from Mohamed-Aggad's wife, reading: "Your son died a martyr with his brothers on November 13," her lawyer tells AFP. The lawyer says the mother went straight to police, who used her DNA to determine that her son had been among the attackers. The BBC reports that apart from two men who were killed at a checkpoint, the other men in the Strasbourg group have all returned to France and been arrested, including Mohamed-Aggad's brother, Karim. (One of the venues targeted in the attacks has opened its doors again.)