Third Paris gunman IDed by text to mom

The third gunman who terrorized Paris’s Bataclan concert hall before being killed last month in the attack was identified Wednesday as a Frenchman who left for Syria in 2013. The development came after his mother received a text message announcing his death and gave a DNA sample to police.

Foued Mohamed-Aggad left Strasbourg for Syria in late 2013, a French judicial official said, at a time when about a dozen young men from the eastern French city headed to the war zone. Some returned of their own will — including his brother — telling investigators they were disgusted by what they had seen. The Frenchman whom many of the returnees said recruited them for IS, Mourad Fares, is also under arrest. All are charged with terror-related offenses and face trial.

Mohamed-Aggad’s mother received a text message in English about 10 days ago announcing her son’s death “as a martyr” on November 13 — a typical way that IS notifies families of casualties. Then she gave French police a DNA sample which showed that one of her sons was killed inside the Bataclan, his brother’s lawyer said, confirming an account by French officials, who requested anonymity to release details of the investigation.

“Without the mother, there would have been nothing,” said the lawyer, Francoise Cotta.

— AP