Jul 27, 2016 11:34 AM EDT By Shunie Pearl C. Dela Cruz, UniversityHerald Reporter

The war against the west of the Islamic extremist ISIS has allegedly expanded its area to Northern France. The latest France attack was in a catholic church in Normandy last Tuesday morning that resulted to the death of an elderly priest.

The victim was identified as Rev. Jacques Hamel, an elderly priest of a Catholic church in the town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray. According to witnesses, the attackers barged into the church while Rev. Hamel together with the three nuns and two parishioners were celebrating a morning mass. Before slicing the throat of the 85-year old priest, the attackers forced him to bend on his knees and stabbed his chest. The attackers even gave a sermon in Arabic, says the witness who is a nun and a survivor of the attack.   

While the police authorities were on the rescue, they saw other human hostages who were used a human shield to block police from entering. In fact, the parishioner who is 86 years old was badly wounded.

Report from Chicago Tribune says, "It was the first extremist's group attack against a church in the West, and fulfills longstanding threats against "crusaders" in what the militants paint as a centuries-old battle for power. One of the attackers had tried twice to leave for Syria; the second was not identified."

One of the attackers was as Adel Kirmiche, 19 years old. He was identified through a monitoring apparatus (electronic tag) he got from immigration law violation. The other remains unidentified.

After the attack, Pope Francis and French President Francois Hollande spoke. The presidential palace said in a statement, "The President told the pontiff that 'everything would be done to protect its churches and places of worship."

However, Amaq News, an ISIS-linked agency issued a statement last Tuesday saying that "the Normandy attackers were the terror outfit's "soldiers". This goes similar to the statements they issued following the Nice, France attack, German music festival suicide attack and southern Germany stabbings.  

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