Stand Off in Toulouse, France With Suspected French Gunman (Mohammed Merah) Linked to School Shootings Killing Three Jewish Children & a Rabbi … Claims He Has Links to Al Qaeda (UPDATE: Gunman Dead)

There is a tense stand off in Toulouse, France as police have surrounded the suspected gunman responsible for the school shootings earlier this week where three Jewish school children and a Rabbi were murdered. What a shock, turns out that the suspect is claiming to have links to the terror group Al Qaeda. The barricaded suspect is also suspected of killing three paratroopers. The suspect has been identified as Mohammad Merah, a 23-24 year old Frenchman of Algerian descent.

About 300 police officers surrounded an apartment in the south of France on Wednesday, trying to coax a man whom authorities called a self-styled al Qaeda jihadist to surrender after a series of shootings that left seven people dead.

Soon after special operations police mounted their raid in Toulouse at 3:30 a.m., shots rang out from inside, wounding two officers, police said.

The man later threw a handgun out the window, but he has other guns, Interior Minister Claude Gueant said.

As the standoff stretched to its sixth hour, Gueant said he expected the suspect to give himself up in the afternoon.

More from CNN. According to reports this individual had been under surveillance for quite some time. It kind of makes one wonder why authorities did not act sooner. Sadly, many are dead because of inaction.

A prosecution official in Paris named the suspect as Mohammed Merah, 23. He was born in Toulouse, said Elisabeth Allanic, a magistrate at the Prosecutors Office.

He had been under surveillance by French intelligence for years, the interior minister said.

He had “already committed certain infractions, some with violence,” Gueant said.

He was in a Toulouse court February 24 for causing an accident with injuries and driving without a license and served some time in jail, CNN affiliate BFM-TV reported.

Gueant said the suspect had a car containing more weapons near his apartment.

The suspect is accused of killing seven people in the last 10 days: a rabbi and three children at a Jewish school on Monday, and three soldiers of north African origin who had recently returned from Afghanistan in two earlier incidents.

UPDATE I: FOX NEWS is reporting that terrorist gunman Mohammed Merah is dead. As reported at the UK Telegraph, “Mohammed Merah promised that he would die with a gun in his hand, and it would seem from the intensity of the gunfire in the last few minutes that that was the case.” So it would appear Mohammed Merah won’t be down for breakfast.

After a 30+ hour stand off, gunman Mohammed Merah is dead. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Two police officers were wounded in the siege.