Arrogant Tosser
The thrust of this Guardian article by Seumas 'Arrogant Tosser' Milne follows his usual line of argument that America, and its obedient lapdog the UK, are responsible for all the problems of the world including the rise of the death cult known as the Islamic State(IS).
Now that seems like a ridiculous thing to say, especially in light of successive atrocities in Tunisia, Kuwait and France where Muslims and non-Muslims are the targets of cold-blooded murderers who are driven by a religious ideology which is essentially fascist in its outlook.
So to suggest that these killers are driven to commit murder and rape by the actions of others is completely dishonest if you ask me, because it is tantamount to saying that they are not responsible for their own behaviour.
So to suggest that these killers are driven to commit murder and rape by the actions of others is completely dishonest if you ask me, because it is tantamount to saying that they are not responsible for their own behaviour.
Which they are, of course, unless you believe that killing, enslaving and raping your enemies is justified by holy books and what certain religious extremists claim is the word of God.
British Muslims are being asked to play their part in tackling the intolerance which clearly exists within their own community and judging by some of the comments from Muslim families whose loved ones have left the UK to join the Islamic State, they would welcome more oversight of potential IS sympathisers rather than less.
By scapegoating Muslims, Cameron fuels radicalisation
By Seumas Milne - The Guardian
Ministers foster terror with their wars. Now they attack liberties at home in the name of British values
The anti-Muslim drumbeat has become deafening across the western world. As images of atrocities by the jihadi terror group Isis multiply online, and a steady trickle of young Europeans and North Americans head to Syria and Iraq to join them, Muslim communities are under siege. Last week David Cameron accused British Muslims of “quietly condoning” the ideology that drives Isis sectarian brutality, normalising hatred of “British values”, and blaming the authorities for the “radicalisation” of those who go to fight for it.
It was too much for Sayeeda Warsi, the former Conservative party chair, who condemned the prime minister’s “misguided emphasis” on “Muslim community complicity”. He risked “further alienating” the large majority of Muslims fighting the influence of such groups, she warned. Even Charles Farr, the hawkish counter-terrorism mandarin at the Home Office, balked. Perhaps fewer than 100 Britons were currently fighting with Isis, he said, and “we risk labelling Muslim communities as somehow intrinsically extremist”.
But Cameron and his neoconservative allies are preparing the ground for the government’s next onslaught. The target will not be terrorism, but “non-violent extremism”. Next month, from nursery schools to optometrists, health services to universities, all will be legally obliged to monitor students and patients for any sign of “extremism” or “radicalisation”.
The new powers represent a level of embedded security surveillance in public life unprecedented in peacetime. We already know from the government’s Prevent programme the chilling impact of such mass spying on schools, where Muslim pupils have been reported for speaking out in favour of Palestinian rights or against the role of British troops in Afghanistan.
But the “counter-extremism” bill announced in the Queen’s Speech is about to take the anti-Muslim clampdown a whole stage further. The plans include banning orders for non-violent individuals and organisations whose politics are considered unacceptable; physical restriction orders for non-violent individuals deemed “harmful”; powers to close mosques; and vetting controls on broadcasters accused of airing extremist material. It’s censorship under any other name.
That was the view of Sajid Javid, then culture secretary, in a leaked letter to the prime minister earlier this year. But Cameron shows every sign of pressing ahead with what amounts to a full-blown assault on basic liberties. Most ludicrously, the new powers are defended in the name of “British values”, including “individual liberty” and “mutual respect and tolerance”.
But as became clear in the aftermath of the murderous Paris attack on Charlie Hebdo earlier this year, we are not all Charlie when it comes to freedom of speech. Anti-extremism powers will be used overwhelmingly against Muslims, rather than, say, non-Muslim homophobes and racists who have little interest in mutual respect and tolerance.
Add in media hostility, Islamophobia and state surveillance of Muslim communities, and alienation can only spread
And they will fail, as their earlier incarnations have done, to discourage the small minority drawn to terrorism at home or jihadi campaigns abroad. Government ministers claim such violence is driven by “ideology” rather than injustice, grievance or its own policies. But, given that they refuse to speak to any significant Muslim organisation they don’t agree with or fund, perhaps it’s not surprising to find them in thrall to an ideology, neoconservatism, of their own.
Any other explanation for the terror threat would in any case implicate the government and its predecessors. In reality, it shouldn’t be so hard to understand why a small section of young alienated Muslims are attracted to fight in Syria and Iraq with Isis and other such groups. Jihadi “ideology” has been around for a long time. But there were no terror attacks in Britain before US and British forces invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, and those behind every violent attack or terror plot have cited western intervention in the Muslim world as their motivation.
Isis has a different appeal to al-Qaida. It has taken huge stretches of territory using naked terror, destroyed borders and set up a self-proclaimed caliphate. In the Middle East it presents itself as the defender of Sunnis in a convulsive sectarian war. For a few young marginalised western Muslims, such groups can offer the illusion of a fight against tyranny and a powerful sense of identity.
But add in relentless media hostility, rampant Islamophobia, state surveillance and harassment of Muslim communities, and such alienation can only spread. In the past year, we’ve had the “Trojan Horse” Birmingham schools plot that never was, the ousting of an elected Muslim mayor of Tower Hamlets by a judge – including on grounds that he had exercised “undue spiritual influence” on Muslims – and evidence of an increasing level of anti-Muslim attacks. Islamophobia now far outstrips hostility to any other religion or ethnic group.
Ministers and their media allies downplay the role of “foreign policy” in Muslim radicalisation, against all the evidence. By foreign policy, they mean multiple western invasions and occupations of Muslim states, torture and state kidnapping on a global scale, and support for dictatorships across the Arab and Muslim world. That includes Saudi Arabia, of course, which shares much of Isis’s “ideology” and practices; and Egypt, whose ex-military leader, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, overthrew the elected president in 2013 and is soon to be welcomed to Downing Street.
Isis is itself the direct product of the US and British occupation and destruction of Iraq, and both countries back armed rebel groups fighting in Syria – as they did in Libya. So no wonder would-be jihadis get confused about who is on whose side. Western Isis volunteers are a disaster for Syria and Iraq, but so far they haven’t carried out return attacks at home.
That could of course change, not least as the government criminalises dissent, brands conservative religiosity “extremist” and, in the formulation of ministers, “quietly condones” Islamophobia. The British government has long fed terrorism with its warmaking abroad. Now it’s also fuelling it with its scapegoating of Muslims at home.
By Seumas Milne - The Guardian
Ministers foster terror with their wars. Now they attack liberties at home in the name of British values
‘David Cameron accused British Muslims of quietly condoning the ideology that drives Isis sectarian brutality.’ Photograph: Andrew Parsons/Rex Shutterstock
The anti-Muslim drumbeat has become deafening across the western world. As images of atrocities by the jihadi terror group Isis multiply online, and a steady trickle of young Europeans and North Americans head to Syria and Iraq to join them, Muslim communities are under siege. Last week David Cameron accused British Muslims of “quietly condoning” the ideology that drives Isis sectarian brutality, normalising hatred of “British values”, and blaming the authorities for the “radicalisation” of those who go to fight for it.
It was too much for Sayeeda Warsi, the former Conservative party chair, who condemned the prime minister’s “misguided emphasis” on “Muslim community complicity”. He risked “further alienating” the large majority of Muslims fighting the influence of such groups, she warned. Even Charles Farr, the hawkish counter-terrorism mandarin at the Home Office, balked. Perhaps fewer than 100 Britons were currently fighting with Isis, he said, and “we risk labelling Muslim communities as somehow intrinsically extremist”.
But Cameron and his neoconservative allies are preparing the ground for the government’s next onslaught. The target will not be terrorism, but “non-violent extremism”. Next month, from nursery schools to optometrists, health services to universities, all will be legally obliged to monitor students and patients for any sign of “extremism” or “radicalisation”.
The new powers represent a level of embedded security surveillance in public life unprecedented in peacetime. We already know from the government’s Prevent programme the chilling impact of such mass spying on schools, where Muslim pupils have been reported for speaking out in favour of Palestinian rights or against the role of British troops in Afghanistan.
But the “counter-extremism” bill announced in the Queen’s Speech is about to take the anti-Muslim clampdown a whole stage further. The plans include banning orders for non-violent individuals and organisations whose politics are considered unacceptable; physical restriction orders for non-violent individuals deemed “harmful”; powers to close mosques; and vetting controls on broadcasters accused of airing extremist material. It’s censorship under any other name.
That was the view of Sajid Javid, then culture secretary, in a leaked letter to the prime minister earlier this year. But Cameron shows every sign of pressing ahead with what amounts to a full-blown assault on basic liberties. Most ludicrously, the new powers are defended in the name of “British values”, including “individual liberty” and “mutual respect and tolerance”.
But as became clear in the aftermath of the murderous Paris attack on Charlie Hebdo earlier this year, we are not all Charlie when it comes to freedom of speech. Anti-extremism powers will be used overwhelmingly against Muslims, rather than, say, non-Muslim homophobes and racists who have little interest in mutual respect and tolerance.
Add in media hostility, Islamophobia and state surveillance of Muslim communities, and alienation can only spread
And they will fail, as their earlier incarnations have done, to discourage the small minority drawn to terrorism at home or jihadi campaigns abroad. Government ministers claim such violence is driven by “ideology” rather than injustice, grievance or its own policies. But, given that they refuse to speak to any significant Muslim organisation they don’t agree with or fund, perhaps it’s not surprising to find them in thrall to an ideology, neoconservatism, of their own.
Any other explanation for the terror threat would in any case implicate the government and its predecessors. In reality, it shouldn’t be so hard to understand why a small section of young alienated Muslims are attracted to fight in Syria and Iraq with Isis and other such groups. Jihadi “ideology” has been around for a long time. But there were no terror attacks in Britain before US and British forces invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, and those behind every violent attack or terror plot have cited western intervention in the Muslim world as their motivation.
Isis has a different appeal to al-Qaida. It has taken huge stretches of territory using naked terror, destroyed borders and set up a self-proclaimed caliphate. In the Middle East it presents itself as the defender of Sunnis in a convulsive sectarian war. For a few young marginalised western Muslims, such groups can offer the illusion of a fight against tyranny and a powerful sense of identity.
But add in relentless media hostility, rampant Islamophobia, state surveillance and harassment of Muslim communities, and such alienation can only spread. In the past year, we’ve had the “Trojan Horse” Birmingham schools plot that never was, the ousting of an elected Muslim mayor of Tower Hamlets by a judge – including on grounds that he had exercised “undue spiritual influence” on Muslims – and evidence of an increasing level of anti-Muslim attacks. Islamophobia now far outstrips hostility to any other religion or ethnic group.
Ministers and their media allies downplay the role of “foreign policy” in Muslim radicalisation, against all the evidence. By foreign policy, they mean multiple western invasions and occupations of Muslim states, torture and state kidnapping on a global scale, and support for dictatorships across the Arab and Muslim world. That includes Saudi Arabia, of course, which shares much of Isis’s “ideology” and practices; and Egypt, whose ex-military leader, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, overthrew the elected president in 2013 and is soon to be welcomed to Downing Street.
Isis is itself the direct product of the US and British occupation and destruction of Iraq, and both countries back armed rebel groups fighting in Syria – as they did in Libya. So no wonder would-be jihadis get confused about who is on whose side. Western Isis volunteers are a disaster for Syria and Iraq, but so far they haven’t carried out return attacks at home.
That could of course change, not least as the government criminalises dissent, brands conservative religiosity “extremist” and, in the formulation of ministers, “quietly condones” Islamophobia. The British government has long fed terrorism with its warmaking abroad. Now it’s also fuelling it with its scapegoating of Muslims at home.
Tunisia attack on Sousse beach 'kills 37'
BBC News
Dozens of people were also injured in the attack
At least 37 people, mostly foreigners, have been killed and 36 injured in an attack on a beach in the Tunisian resort town of Sousse, according to the health ministry.
Video footage showed the body of a suspected gunman lying in a street.
Tunisians, Britons, Germans and Belgians and at least one Irish citizen are among the dead.
In March militants killed 22 people, mainly foreign tourists, in an attack on a museum in the capital Tunis.
At least five Britons are confirmed dead, UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said, adding "we must expect more reports of fatalities".
Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi has gone to Sousse's Sahloul hospital to visit the injured and promised "painful but necessary measures" in the wake of the attack.
Security officials said one attacker, who had posed as a swimmer but was carrying a rifle under a parasol, started shooting on the beach before entering the Hotel Riu Imperial Marhaba, continuing to shoot as he walked past the pool.
He was then shot dead in an exchange of fire with police, officials said. They said he was a student not previously known to authorities.
Local media reported that a second suspected attacker had been arrested, but this has not been confirmed.
At least 37 people, mostly foreigners, have been killed and 36 injured in an attack on a beach in the Tunisian resort town of Sousse, according to the health ministry.
Video footage showed the body of a suspected gunman lying in a street.
Tunisians, Britons, Germans and Belgians and at least one Irish citizen are among the dead.
In March militants killed 22 people, mainly foreign tourists, in an attack on a museum in the capital Tunis.
At least five Britons are confirmed dead, UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said, adding "we must expect more reports of fatalities".
Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi has gone to Sousse's Sahloul hospital to visit the injured and promised "painful but necessary measures" in the wake of the attack.
Security officials said one attacker, who had posed as a swimmer but was carrying a rifle under a parasol, started shooting on the beach before entering the Hotel Riu Imperial Marhaba, continuing to shoot as he walked past the pool.
He was then shot dead in an exchange of fire with police, officials said. They said he was a student not previously known to authorities.
Local media reported that a second suspected attacker had been arrested, but this has not been confirmed.
Day of attacks
The shooting in Tunisia comes on the same day as:
A man was decapitated and several others injured at a factory in France
A deadly attack on a Shia mosque in Kuwait
The shooting in Tunisia comes on the same day as:
A man was decapitated and several others injured at a factory in France
A deadly attack on a Shia mosque in Kuwait
One British holidaymaker in Sousse, Steve Johnson, told the BBC: "We were just laying on the beach as usual and... we heard what we thought at first was fireworks.
"But it was soon pretty obvious... that it was firearms that were being discharged and people screaming and starting to run."
The Islamic State militant group had called on its followers to increase attacks during the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, but no-one has yet said they were behind this attack.
"But it was soon pretty obvious... that it was firearms that were being discharged and people screaming and starting to run."
The Islamic State militant group had called on its followers to increase attacks during the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, but no-one has yet said they were behind this attack.
Analysis: BBC's Aidan Lewis
It is often hard to prove the links between separate cases of bloodshed, even when claims of responsibility are issued by the same group.
Violence is often driven by local grievances, with militant factions switching allegiances as the fortunes of bigger international "franchises" like al-Qaeda and Islamic State rise and fall.
That leads to uncertainty as to whether the bigger group directed, co-ordinated, or inspired a given attack, or simply claimed it after the fact. That is what officials and security analysts will be seeking to understand in the aftermath of this bloody day.
It is often hard to prove the links between separate cases of bloodshed, even when claims of responsibility are issued by the same group.
Violence is often driven by local grievances, with militant factions switching allegiances as the fortunes of bigger international "franchises" like al-Qaeda and Islamic State rise and fall.
That leads to uncertainty as to whether the bigger group directed, co-ordinated, or inspired a given attack, or simply claimed it after the fact. That is what officials and security analysts will be seeking to understand in the aftermath of this bloody day.
The bodies of the victims were strewn across the beach
Tourists were ordered off the beach into the neighbouring hotels
'He took a bullet for me'
One survivor told the BBC how her fiance, a Welsh tourist, had been shot three times as he used his body as a shield.
"He took a bullet for me," said Saera Wilson. "I owe him my life because he threw himself in front of me when the shooting started.
"It was the bravest thing I've ever known. But I just had to leave him under the sunbed because the shooting just kept on coming.
"I ran back, past bodies on the beach to reach our hotel. It was chaos - there was a body in the hotel pool and it was just full of blood.
Welsh tourist was human shield
'He took a bullet for me'
One survivor told the BBC how her fiance, a Welsh tourist, had been shot three times as he used his body as a shield.
"He took a bullet for me," said Saera Wilson. "I owe him my life because he threw himself in front of me when the shooting started.
"It was the bravest thing I've ever known. But I just had to leave him under the sunbed because the shooting just kept on coming.
"I ran back, past bodies on the beach to reach our hotel. It was chaos - there was a body in the hotel pool and it was just full of blood.
Welsh tourist was human shield
The UK Foreign Office said the British embassy in Tunis was sending a crisis team to the area.
"Any British nationals in these hotels or nearby should remain indoors, and contact their tour operator and the Foreign Office. For security reasons they should not advertise their location on social media or when speaking to journalists," the FCO said in its updated travel advice.
The Belgian foreign ministry is advising against all travel to Tunisia and the Belgian Jetairfly airline recalled a flight en route to Tunisia in mid-air, later announcing it is cancelling all flights to Tunisiabecause of the attack.
A spokeswoman for the Thomson and First Choice tour operators said: "We are working closely with our teams in Tunisia and the relevant authorities to determine exactly what has happened and provide assistance to those affected."
Friday's attack was the deadliest in Tunisia's recent history. The country has seen militant Islamists gain strength since the overthrow of long-serving ruler Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in a popular uprising in 2011.
Democratic elections after Ben Ali's removal saw the moderate Islamist Ennahda party take power before the secularist Nidaa Tounes government won a parliamentary poll in October.
However, neither party has been able effectively to combat Islamist violence made worse by a raging conflict in neighbouring Libya and by Tunisian fighters returning home after going to join Islamist campaigns in Iraq and Syria.
Tunisia's tourism industry
6.1 million
the number of tourist arrivals to Tunisia in 2014
15.2% the total contribution of travel and tourism to Tunisia's GDP
473,000 the number of jobs supported by travel and tourism (13.8% of total employment)
Source: Tunisia Tourism Ministry, World Travel and Tourism Council
"Any British nationals in these hotels or nearby should remain indoors, and contact their tour operator and the Foreign Office. For security reasons they should not advertise their location on social media or when speaking to journalists," the FCO said in its updated travel advice.
The Belgian foreign ministry is advising against all travel to Tunisia and the Belgian Jetairfly airline recalled a flight en route to Tunisia in mid-air, later announcing it is cancelling all flights to Tunisiabecause of the attack.
A spokeswoman for the Thomson and First Choice tour operators said: "We are working closely with our teams in Tunisia and the relevant authorities to determine exactly what has happened and provide assistance to those affected."
Friday's attack was the deadliest in Tunisia's recent history. The country has seen militant Islamists gain strength since the overthrow of long-serving ruler Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in a popular uprising in 2011.
Democratic elections after Ben Ali's removal saw the moderate Islamist Ennahda party take power before the secularist Nidaa Tounes government won a parliamentary poll in October.
However, neither party has been able effectively to combat Islamist violence made worse by a raging conflict in neighbouring Libya and by Tunisian fighters returning home after going to join Islamist campaigns in Iraq and Syria.
Tunisia's tourism industry
6.1 million
the number of tourist arrivals to Tunisia in 2014
15.2% the total contribution of travel and tourism to Tunisia's GDP
473,000 the number of jobs supported by travel and tourism (13.8% of total employment)
Source: Tunisia Tourism Ministry, World Travel and Tourism Council
Kuwait Shia mosque blast death toll 'rises to 25'
BBC News Middle East
The death toll from a suicide attack on a Shia mosque during Friday prayers in the Kuwaiti capital has risen to at least 25, the interior ministry says.
Another 202 people were wounded, it added. Images circulating online show bodies on the mosque floor amid debris.
The blast hit the Imam Sadiq Mosque in a busy area to the east of Kuwait City.
An Islamic State- (IS) affiliated group said it was behind the attack. IS has carried out similar recent attacks in neighbouring Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
However, this is the first attack on a Shia mosque to take place in the small Gulf state.
The mosque was packed at the time of the attack
An Islamic State-affiliated group said it was behind the bombing
A Kuwaiti MP, who saw the attacker, said the mosque was packed with some 2,000 people when there was a loud explosion, Reuters reported.
"It was obvious from the suicide bomber's body that he was young. He walked into the prayer hall during sujood [kneeling in prayer], he looked... in his 20s, I saw him with my own eyes," Khalil al-Salih told the news agency.
A paramedic, speaking to AP news agency, said most of the victims men and boys attending Friday prayers.
Footage said to be taken in the aftermath of the blast showed dozens of men in blood-splattered white robes spilling out of the smoke-filled mosque into the street outside.
A Kuwaiti MP, who saw the attacker, said the mosque was packed with some 2,000 people when there was a loud explosion, Reuters reported.
"It was obvious from the suicide bomber's body that he was young. He walked into the prayer hall during sujood [kneeling in prayer], he looked... in his 20s, I saw him with my own eyes," Khalil al-Salih told the news agency.
A paramedic, speaking to AP news agency, said most of the victims men and boys attending Friday prayers.
Footage said to be taken in the aftermath of the blast showed dozens of men in blood-splattered white robes spilling out of the smoke-filled mosque into the street outside.
It was the first suicide blast to take place at a Shia mosque in Kuwait
Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabah said the attack was an attempt to threaten national unity. "But this is too difficult for them and we are much stronger than that," he added.
State TV showed the Kuwaiti Emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, visiting the damaged mosque.
An IS affiliate calling itself the Najd Province - the same group that claimed a pair of bombing attacks on Shia mosques in Saudi Arabia in recent weeks - said it was behind the attack.
A spokesman for Islamic State this week urged the militant group's followers to step up attacks during the Islamic month of Ramadan.
Sunni-ruled Kuwait has a large Shia minority, which IS considers to be heretical.
Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabah said the attack was an attempt to threaten national unity. "But this is too difficult for them and we are much stronger than that," he added.
State TV showed the Kuwaiti Emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, visiting the damaged mosque.
An IS affiliate calling itself the Najd Province - the same group that claimed a pair of bombing attacks on Shia mosques in Saudi Arabia in recent weeks - said it was behind the attack.
A spokesman for Islamic State this week urged the militant group's followers to step up attacks during the Islamic month of Ramadan.
Sunni-ruled Kuwait has a large Shia minority, which IS considers to be heretical.
France attack: Man decapitated at factory near Lyon
BBC News - Europe
A van driver who was investigated for links to Islamist radicals has attacked a gas factory near the south-eastern city of Lyon, a French prosecutor says.
Yacine Sali, 35, caused an explosion by ramming his car into an area containing flammable liquids and was arrested at the scene, Francois Molins said.
Mr Sali's boss, the owner of a delivery firm, was found beheaded alongside flags containing Arabic inscriptions.
The attack put France back on to its highest terror alert.
An investigation has been launched by French anti-terror police.
Day of attacks
The attack in France comes on the same day as:
Tourists are killed in shooting at Tunisia beach resort
A deadly attack on a Shia mosque in Kuwait
Yacine Sali drove his van into the Air Products factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, some 40km (25 miles) from Lyon, at just after 09:30 (07:30 GMT).
He was waved through by staff who recognised him as one of their regular delivery drivers, Prosecutor Molins said.
CCTV footage caught the van a few minutes later accelerating towards an open hanger which contained many jars of flammable liquid. Shortly afterwards, there was a blast.
The fire brigade was called and, at just before 10:00, one of the fire officers caught the suspect trying to open bottles of acetone at a second hanger, Mr Molins said.
The body of Mr Sali's boss, the 54-year-old owner of a transport company in the Lyon area, was found nearby.
The body had been decapitated and the head had been hooked on to some factory railings, along with two flags bearing Arabic inscriptions, Mr Molins went on to say.
He said the suspect was a father of three who had been married for 10 years. His wife, sister and another person have also been arrested.
Mr Sali, Mr Molins said, had never been found guilty of any crime but had been "under surveillance for radical Islamist activities since 2006".
The attack in France comes on the same day as:
Tourists are killed in shooting at Tunisia beach resort
A deadly attack on a Shia mosque in Kuwait
Yacine Sali drove his van into the Air Products factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, some 40km (25 miles) from Lyon, at just after 09:30 (07:30 GMT).
He was waved through by staff who recognised him as one of their regular delivery drivers, Prosecutor Molins said.
CCTV footage caught the van a few minutes later accelerating towards an open hanger which contained many jars of flammable liquid. Shortly afterwards, there was a blast.
The fire brigade was called and, at just before 10:00, one of the fire officers caught the suspect trying to open bottles of acetone at a second hanger, Mr Molins said.
The body of Mr Sali's boss, the 54-year-old owner of a transport company in the Lyon area, was found nearby.
The body had been decapitated and the head had been hooked on to some factory railings, along with two flags bearing Arabic inscriptions, Mr Molins went on to say.
He said the suspect was a father of three who had been married for 10 years. His wife, sister and another person have also been arrested.
Mr Sali, Mr Molins said, had never been found guilty of any crime but had been "under surveillance for radical Islamist activities since 2006".
There has been a heavy police presence outside the factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier
Forensics scientists have been gathering evidence from the scene
The site belongs to Air Products, a US-based firm
Air Products makes gases for a number of industries, including food production and medicine
Before her arrest, Mr Sali's wife told Europe 1 radio of her shock at his arrest, saying he had left for his delivery job as normal and did not come home.
"We have a normal family life," she said.
Putting France on maximum alert, President Francois Hollande said: "We have no doubt that the attack was to blow up the building. It bears the hallmarks of a terrorist attack."
Speaking to reporters before flying back from an EU summit in Brussels, he reflected on the fact it would remind people of the attacks in and around Paris in January that killed 17 people.
"We all remember what happened before in our country. There is therefore a lot of emotion," he said.
Security was stepped up at sensitive sites around Lyon.
US-owned Air Products makes gases and chemicals for a wide range of industries, including technology, energy, healthcare, food, and has employees in 50 countries around the world.
A spokesperson said their employees "had been evacuated from the site and all accounted for".
Before her arrest, Mr Sali's wife told Europe 1 radio of her shock at his arrest, saying he had left for his delivery job as normal and did not come home.
"We have a normal family life," she said.
Putting France on maximum alert, President Francois Hollande said: "We have no doubt that the attack was to blow up the building. It bears the hallmarks of a terrorist attack."
Speaking to reporters before flying back from an EU summit in Brussels, he reflected on the fact it would remind people of the attacks in and around Paris in January that killed 17 people.
"We all remember what happened before in our country. There is therefore a lot of emotion," he said.
Security was stepped up at sensitive sites around Lyon.
US-owned Air Products makes gases and chemicals for a wide range of industries, including technology, energy, healthcare, food, and has employees in 50 countries around the world.
A spokesperson said their employees "had been evacuated from the site and all accounted for".
