French officials have identified the terrorist who blew himself up at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris last month as Fouad Mohamed Aggad, a 23-year-old Frenchman. According to the Associated Press, Aggad left Strasbourg for Syria with his brother and a group of friends in 2013. Most of the others were arrested when they returned to France last spring, but Aggad stayed in Syria. It’s unclear when he returned to the country.
While most of the U.S. response has focused on fears about Syrian refugees, all of the Paris attackers identified so far are native French speakers from France or Belgium. Two of the attackers at the Stade de France were carrying what are believed to be fake Syrian passports, and a final attacker, who was killed during a police raid following the attack, has yet to be identified.
