Salah Abdeslam, on trial for his role in the 2015 Paris terrorist attack that killed 130 people, said the murders were “nothing personal” in his first acknowledgement of his part in the attack, the Associated Press reports.
The November 2015 attacks consisted of suicide bombings and mass shooters at six different locations around Paris, killing 130 victims and seven terrorists while wounding more than 400. It was the deadliest attack on Paris since World War II. The attackers hit a soccer stadium, a concert hall and street-front shops and restaurants. The manhunt for the perpetrators stretched into the following summer.
A Belgian national, Abdeslam was one of nine ISIL terrorists working out of Brussels who were mainly French and Belgian citizens. They traveled between the Belgium and France without issue, allowing them to transport their guns and bombs to the target after obtaining them in Brussels.
Twenty people, including six in absentia, are on trial for the attack. Abdeslam was arrested in March 2016 following a shootout in Brussels. One of his brothers was a suicide bomber who died at the soccer stadium in the first round of attacks. Abdeslam said the attacks were in retaliation for French air attacks on Syria and Iraq.