Gunman with a Grudge: Nordine Amrani

The Daily Telegraph reports that lawyers have come up with an explanation for Nordine Amrani's gun and grenade attack on Belgian shoppers in Liège yesterday: he held a "grudge against society".  He feared, apparently, going back to prison and felt that he had been "set up". Quite why a gun-toting, grenade-loving misogynist sex offender felt "set up" I shall leave the reader to speculate. According to the Telegraph, his lawyer, a certain Miss Amrani (although she shares his surname she is not a relative)

'dismissed any possible terrorist motives for the attack. "He did not feel at all Moroccan. He did not speak a word of Arabic and was not Muslim. What he said is that he felt a Belgian," she said. "He was crazy about weapons but as a collector. He felt he had not had much luck in life and felt unfairly treated by the courts. This was a 'ras-le-bol' of a tormented soul: estranged from justice, and against society."'

Well, if this Moroccan resident of Liege held a grudge against the Belgian legal system, which seemed after all to be only doing its job in calling him to report to a police station yesterday, why did he then purposefully target ordinary Belgians at, of all places, a Christmas market, before killing himself? Why did he first rape and then shoot a 45-year-old cleaner? Does not this suicide attack, which resulted in the killing of the innocent at this particular location at this time, possess a certain symbolic significance? According to blogger Klein Verzet, the attack could be linked to violent threats made on 13 December to a Belgian court which handed down sentences for a Muslim honour killing: four members of a Pakistani Muslim family - a father and his sons - were gaoled for killing daughter Sadia Sheikh in 2007. However, one thing in this case does stand out as startlingly clear: it is a myth that growing and smoking cannabis makes you 'mellow' or 'laid back'; psychotic - yes; sociable - no. The rather graphic video below reveals the bloody aftermath of Amrani's rampage in Liège.

Indiscriminate Killer - Nordine Amrani (courtesy of Daily Telegraph)

Liège Shooting and Grenade Attack: Motiveless?

What was the motive underpinning today’s shooting and grenade attack on shoppers in the Belgian city of Liège? Some reports state that it was the action of a lone gunman - as Nordine Amrani – who is said to have killed himself after throwing grenades into Saint-Lambert Square, where one eyewitness claimed that some four explosions wrought their bloody work amongst Christmas shoppers. He is also reported as having opened fired at the crowd from the rooftop on which he was situated. His firearms of choice: the FN FAL automatic rifle and a pistol.

According to the BBC, Amrani had previously been sentenced for firearms and drugs offences, and had recently been asked to report to the police in connection with fresh charges. The Daily Mail adds that the 33-year-old (some reports say 32) was also a convicted sex offender. As in the immediate aftermath of all such incidents, it is not yet clear how many casualties there have been, with the BBC claiming three dead and 75 injured, the Daily Mail four. At 6.45pm the Daily Telegraph announced that the number of fatalities had risen to five following the death of an 18-month-old girl. Within a couple of hours, the Guardian noted that the death toll stood at six. More than 120 people were injured and the day after the attack it was announced that Amrani had also murdered a 45-year-old woman who happened to be a cleaner for a neighbour. Her body was left in his shed which he had used to cultivate cannabis.

Was this act of carnage in which the killer blew himself up with a grenade simply the act of a man who had experienced a violent mental breakdown, or something else? The Belgian police claim that evidence indicates that this was not an act of terrorism. In some respects, the seeming meaninglessness of this random violence resembled last weekend's shooting spree in LA, where a lone gunman yelled "Allahu Akbar!" as he took aim at passing motorists until shot dead by the police.

In a bizarre and bloody incident in Florence today, Gianluca Casseri opened fire at a group of Senegalese street traders, killing two and wounding a number of others before driving away to shoot himself. From reports it is difficult to ascertain the timing of this crime. Might it have been 'inspired' by the atrocity in Liège? 

Somehow, the name ‘Nordine Amrani’ does not suggest someone of Belgian provenance. A Moroccan-Dutch Thai kickboxer (a peculiar cultural melange if there ever was one) by the name of Mosab Amrani suggests that Nordine Amrani could have been of North African origin. A search for this surname using Wikipedia reveals a range of Maghrebian individuals. Can an Islamist motivation therefore be ruled out? According to blogger Klein Verzet, the attack could be linked to violent threats made on 13 December to a Belgian court which handed down sentences linked to a Muslim honour killing. Four members of a Pakistani Muslim family - a father and his sons - were gaoled for killing daughter Sadia Sheikh in 2007. The videos below illustrate the state of confusion in the city this afternoon.UPDATE HERE.

 

Belgian Medics come to the Aid of Victims (courtesy of Daily Mail)