France 'lone wolf' attacker adopts Islamist orders

By acting alone and employing the shock tactic of decapitation, the suspect in France's latest attack appeared to be following to the letter the gruesome orders of Islamist groups.
Last year, the spokesman of the Islamic State extremist group urged followers to "kill a disbelieving American or European -- especially the spiteful and filthy French" by any means that came to hand.
"Smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him, or poison him," said Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, the group's spokesman.

While no group has claimed responsibility for yesterday's attack, there were nonetheless chilling echoes of Adnani's exhortations.
The suspect, 35-year-old father-of-three Yassin Salhi, allegedly severed his boss's head and attached it to a fence before driving headlong into a gas factory in an apparent bid to blow it and himself sky high.
Nearby Salhi's almost destroyed vehicle, authorities found a knife, suggesting the suspect may have taken to heart Adnani's message to use whatever is available to sow terror.

"We've gone from the hyper-terrorism of September 11 to a form of micro-terrorism," Alain Bauer, criminologist and author of a book on terrorism, told AFP.

"These are mini-attacks carried out by one or two operatives, with their knife, their car, their bottle of gas. They are less structured, less professional and can therefore carry out more little attacks," added Bauer.
"But the effect is the same whether there is one victim or 3,000," concluded the expert.