Paris attacks suspect Abdeslam justifies 2015 killings

The suspected sole surviving gunman from 2015 attacks in Paris has come close to admitting his role in the carnage in a rare statement to investigators in which he justified the killings, reports said today.

Salah Abdeslam, in custody in France over the November 2015 attacks that left 130 people dead, has refused to cooperate with French judges ever since his arrest five months after the atrocities.

But yesterday he recorded a statement in which he parroted the propaganda of Islamist extremist groups such as Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the attacks on the Bataclan concert hall, a sports stadium and bars in the French capital.

"We don't attack you because you eat pork, you drink wine or you listen to music, but Muslims defend themselves against those people who attack us," Abdeslam said, according to the RTL and France Inter radio stations.

They quoted a lawyer, Jean Reinhart, who is representing the victims of the attacks and has access to the case files.

"Put your anger to one side and think about it a few minutes," Abdeslam said in comments addressed to the dead and injured. "You are suffering from the mistakes made by your leaders."