Toulouse gunman was on the US no-fly list

France was facing calls for a far-reaching intelligence inquiry last night (Thursday) following reports that an al-Qaeda-trained killer shot dead after a siege in Toulouse was on the US no-fly list.

Nationwide relief greeted the news that no police officers had died in the stand-off with Mohammed Merah, 23, who shot dead three French paratroopers, a rabbi and three children outside a Jewish school in Toulouse.

But the authorities faced growing criticism that it should have prevented a killing spree by a known fundamentalist whom the US confirmed was on a no-fly list and had attended an al Qaeda training camp. Jund al-Khilafah, an al-Qaeda front organisation claimed responsibility for the shootings in a statement posted on jihadist websites.

"On March 19, our brother Yousef the Frenchman carried out an operation that shook the foundations of the Zionist Crusaders and filled their hearts with terror," it wrote. "We claim responsibility for these operations," it went on, adding that Israel's "crimes will not go unpunished".

Merah admitted the shootings, which he filmed, during talks with negotiators, expressing no remorse other than that he had not killed more people.

He told authorities he had been trained by al-Qaeda on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Claude Gueant, the interior minister, admitted that Merah had been under surveillance "for several years", adding he had never "shown any sign of preparing criminal acts".

Increasingly damning evidence suggested that France was aware that Mehar posed a threat. French intelligence had previously alerted security services in Spain that Merah was planning to travel to the Costa Brava to attend a meeting of Islamist activists.

The prosecutor said that he had been arrested by Afghan police in 2010 in Kandahar and handed over to US troops, who put him on a flight back to France. When questioned last November by French intelligence about his foreign journeys, Mehar managed to palm off agents with photos, saying he had been on a "tourist trip". His brother, Abdelukar, 29, whos is under arrest, had been implicated in a jihad network in Iraq in 2007 but never charged.

Socialist Jean-Pierre Chevenement, a former defence and interior minister, said the killings were "a warning for services in charge of anti-terrorism".

Reports yesterday claimed that in 2010 Merah forced a teenager to watch videos of al-Qaeda hostage beheadings and executions. When the boy's mother filed a legal complaint, Merah allegedly appeared with a sword shouting "al-Qaeda" and attacked her, putting her in hospital for several days. She insisted the police did nothing.

While Merah claimed to have been trained in the Pakistani region of Waziristan, his indoctrination had begun earlier, during an 18-month spell in prison, in which he tried to commit suicide and then spent time in a psychiatric hospital.

President Nicolas Sarkozy addressed the nation shortly after Merah's death to promise tough new criminal measures against watching internet atrocities and travelling abroad for indoctrination.

"These crimes were not the work of a madman. A madman is irresponsible. These crimes were the work of a fanatic and a monster," he said.

A spokesman for the Socialist presidential candidate Francois Hollande denounced a surveillance "failing" and said the new measures were not going to solve society's problems. "Expressing ideas is not enough to bring someone before justice," said Bruno Le Roux.

Alain Juppe, the foreign minister, said "light must be shed" on what happened in the run-up to the killings, but insisted there was "no reason" to think there were any failings.

Mr Sarkozy said an investigation was under way to see if Mehar had any accomplices.