French police confirmed on Wednesday that they have identified the third suicide bomber in the Bataclan concert hall attacks of Nov. 13. When asked to confirm the name, Prime Minister Manuel Valls stated that "he has been identified," but "it is not up to me" to discuss the specifics of the investigation, according to the New York Times. However, French newspaper La Parisien reported that the the third attacker was Foued Mohamed-Aggad, 23, from Strasbourg, according to the newspaper's source.
Mohamed-Aggad was part of a group that traveled to Syria in 2013 as part of a radicalization movement. While the rest of the group returned to France during spring last year and were arrested by French authorities, he remained in Syria, according to BBC News.
It was a difficult process to identify the suicide bombers, as many re-entered with fake names, posing as Syrian refugees. It was also difficult because of the lack of physical remains, but French police used DNA samples and compared them to Mohamed-Aggad's family. The other two bombers had already been identified as Omar Ismail Mostefai, 29, and Samy Amimour, 28, according to BBC News. All were French nationals.
Mohamed-Aggad's father, Said, said he only found out about his son's involvement in the attacks through the media and that if he knew, he "would have killed him beforehand," according to Le Parisien. Mohamed-Aggad has lived with his mother since 2007, when his parents separated.
Media speculates that Mohamed-Aggad was recruited my Mourad Fares, who was known for recruiting Frenchmen for jihadist groups in Syria. Fares had been arrested last year in Turkey and is being prosecuted for offenses relating to terrorism in Syria and France, according to BBC News.
One Paris attacker still remains to be identified.
