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Suspicious Strasbourg Shootings
By Stephen Lendman
Global Research, December 13, 2018

Url of this article:
https://www.globalresearch.ca/suspicious-strasbourg-shootings/5662809

On Tuesday, the day after French President Macron’s national address in response to weeks of Yellow Vest protests for social justice he opposes, offering woefully inadequate concessions, suspicious shootings occurred in Strasbourg, France.

The Macron regime alone benefits from what happened, its timing suspicious. Reportedly, four people were killed, another dozen injured, some seriously, the incident occurring near the city’s Christmas market, a few km from the European Parliament.

Part of the city is on lockdown over what happened. France’s interior minister Christophe Castaner said the nation’s security level was raised to the highest level – a state of emergency not so far declared.

Image result for Cherif Chekatt

Hundreds of French police and military forces are conducting a widespread search for a suspect identified as 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt. Why him and not others is unclear. No motive was suggested for the shootings.

Police claim he was seen leaving the area after the shootings by taxi. Is he responsible for what happened or a convenient patsy – the case when similar incidents occurred in France, elsewhere in Europe and America.

Was the Strasbourg incident the action of a homicidal killer, a terrorist act, or something more sinister?

Was it staged to heighten fear and shift attention from Yellow Vest protests? Was it a state-sponsored false flag like numerous similar incidents in recent years?

According to French police, Cherkatt is a Moroccan-born Muslim with a criminal record, involving various petty offenses, including robbery, not murder or other violent crimes.

A native of Strasbourg, his local residence was searched several hours before the shootings. He wasn’t home at the time – no explanation given as to why the search occurred.

Authorities claimed they found a rifle and ammunition, four knives, and a fragmentation grenade. Virtually all homes and apartments have various sorts of knives.

Many people own handguns and rifles. Fragmentation grenades aren’t readily available to anyone other than police, security, and military forces. Did Chertoff have one, or was it planted in his residence by authorities?

According to interior ministry official Laurent Nunez, he’s being investigated for possible involvement “in murder and acts of terrorism in relation to a criminal enterprise.”

His record of petty offenses is world’s apart from murder, terrorism, and other forms of violence. Petty thieves aren’t likely to commit mass shootings when never before having been involved in violent acts.

Whoever was responsible for the shootings remains at large. The gunman or gunmen reportedly entered the area through Pont du Corbeau.

Gunfire reportedly came from three locations. Were multiple gunmen involved? Police said the individual they believe is responsible for the shootings left the crime scene by taxi, wounded by gunfire, his whereabouts unknown.

It’s unclear if the official account of the Tuesday incident is accurate or if Chekatt is being used as a convenient patsy for a state-sponsored false flag – aiming to divert attention from Yellow Vest protests and help end them.

Unless proved otherwise with credible evidence, the latter explanation seems most likely.

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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Disclaimer: The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article.