TERRORIST SUSPECT

French Shooter Linked to Al Qaeda

Mohamed Merah remains in stand-off with police.

The gunman suspected of killing three students at a Jewish school in Toulouse on Monday and three paratroopers last week remains holed up in the house where he was besieged in a predawn police raid. Two policemen and a French soldier were injured in the hours-long standoff, during which they exchanged fire with the suspect who has claimed allegiance to al Qaeda. Mohamed Merah, a 24-year-old French national born in Algeria, was a known bombmaker in Afghanistan and was imprisoned in 2007 but escaped during an al Qaeda-orchestrated jailbreak. Police found a massive arsenal of weapons in his car and say the suspect is still in the apartment with a gun by his side.