PARIS: French officials rejected charges that intelligence failures let a young man kill seven people, as the crack police unit that finally killed the gunman faced criticism of their operation.
Several security experts in Israel were scathing of the French police's handling of the siege, with one specialist calling it a disgrace.
French investigators meanwhile were trying to establish whether Mohamed Merah, who murdered three Jewish children, a trainee rabbi and three soldiers in three separate attacks, had worked alone or with accomplices.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Friday that security officials had known Merah, who died in a hail of police bullets.
But there was no reason to suspect he was planning attacks, he said.
The intelligence services "did their job perfectly well. They identified Mohamed Merah when he made his trips," he told French radio.
Intelligence agents "watched him long enough to come to the conclusion that there was no element, no indication, that this was a dangerous man who would one day pass from words to acts," said Fillon.
The head of France's DCRI domestic intelligence agency, Bernard Squarcini, told Le Monde newspaper there was little more that security services could have done to prevent Merah's atrocities.
Merah, 23, had claimed to be an Al-Qaeda member who killed to avenge Palestinian children and punish France for sending troops to Afghanistan.
An Al-Qaeda linked group, Jund al-Khilafah, claimed responsibility on jihadist websites for Merah's killings.
But Squarcini said Merah had not followed the usual path taken by extremists. (AFP)
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