The voice that claimed Islamic State was responsible for the deadly Nov. 13 Paris terrorist attacks is known to many in the small French provincial town of Alencon.

To family, Fabien Clain was a "big teddy bear." To neighbors, he was polite. At the local mosque, he was a fellow worshipper who came to pray.

But to French authorities, he was a veteran jihadi jailed once in the past for recruiting militant fighters and believed by them to have fled to Syria this year. They now think he may have played a bigger role in the attacks, the worst in France since World War II.