Finnish police: Knife attacker identified with IS

HELSINKI – Finnish police say the Moroccan asylum-seeker who killed two people and injured eight others in last year's stabbing attack in southwestern Finland identified strongly with the Islamic State group and was motivated largely by hatred after heavy bombardments by the Western alliance in the Syrian city of Raqqa.

Olli Toyras of the National Bureau of Investigation said Wednesday that Abderrahman Bouanane became radicalized some three months before the Aug. 18 attack and although he acted alone, he thought of himself as an IS fighter.

Toyras said Bouanane had followed earlier terror incidents in Belgium and France and was willing to die for "a martyr cause."

The suspect earlier saw his asylum in Finland rejected but that was not considered the motive for the stabbing, in which he used two knives.