While still mourning over the lives lost in the November 2015 terror attacks, the French have been bombarded with another ISIS inspired attack. A Muslim radical named Larossi Abballa, with prior jihadist connections in Pakistan, brutally stabbed to death a French police officer and his romantic partner on Monday night.  Their names were Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and Jessica Schneider.  Her traumatized three-year-old son was forced to watch. Not only did the killer torture Schneider in front of her toddler, he also live-streamed his vicious behavior on Facebook.

Why would someone do something so sinister? For this case, the motive is quite clear considering the killer’s actions. There were some clues:

Authorities found a Koran, headscarf and two other books in a vehicle used by Abbala, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said, and a list of other targets — including police officers and journalists — was found at Abbala’s home.

Abbala was sentenced in 2013 to three years in prison, including six months suspended, for trying to recruit jihadists to fight in Pakistan, the BBC reported.

Abbala pledged allegiance to ISIS three weeks ago and reportedly did during the filmed portion of the attack, too. The Islamic State’s Amaq news agency later cited an unnamed “source” as saying an ISIS fighter carried out the attack and the jihadist group claimed responsibility for the assault on its Albayan Radio, Reuters reported.

Molins said Abballa’s attack was a response to ISIS calls to “kill non-believers where they live” during Ramadan.

On Abbala’s Facebook page, which was later taken down, the terrorist wrote that “the Euros will be a graveyard,” according to the BBC.

French media, some of them citing unnamed neighbors, reported that the attacker was heard shouting “Allahu Akbar” — Arabic for “God is Great” — during the attack.

Furthermore, Abballa attended prayers at his neighborhood mosque just hours before the slaughter, reading the Koran for so long that Rector Mohamed Droussi had to ask him to leave.

Even with heightened security, France has to grapple with the fact that around 1,800 people have left France to join jihadist forces in Syria and Iraq as of October 2015, claiming one of the highest rates of fighters per capita in Western Europe. In addition, France has to deal with prison radicalization.  France has also suffered from jihadist influence in security.  There were “17 cases of police officers radicalized between 2012 and 2015,” according to Le Parisien.    Airport staff have also been the target of jihadist recruiters in France, but authorities have not been able to do anything because of official concern for appearing “Islamophobic.”

France will continue to be a major target.  Is is one of the largest and most prominent Western nations.  This year, during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, it is also hosting Euro Cup 2016, a set of soccer matches attended by large numbers of people.  Abballa, before his murders, made threatening statements about this tournament.

ISIS has also released a chilling statement declaring, “Ramadan, the month of conquest and jihad. Get prepared, be ready … to make it a month of calamity everywhere for the non-believers[.]”  ISIS’s sentiment sounds very familiar to those who remember Islamic passages such as Quran 3:151, which states, “We will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve for what they have associated with Allah of which He had not sent down [any] authority. And their refuge will be the Fire, and wretched is the residence of the wrongdoers.”

Taking into consideration the recent ISIS strike brutally targeting French police, it will be interesting to see how France handles the jihadist threat during the rest of the Euro Cup 2016.