2015-11 Paris attacks

 Mass murder in Paris (Deep event)

Locations of the attacks
Date	21:16, 13 November 2015 - 00:58, 14 November 2015
Location	Paris,  France,  Saint-Denis,  France 1: near,  Stade de France,  2: Rue Bichat and rue Alibert (Le Petit Cambodge,  Le Carillon) 3: Rue de la Fontaine-au-Roi (Café Bonne Bière,  La Casa Nostra),  4: The,  Bataclan,  theatre 5: Rue de Charonne (La Belle Équipe)
Blamed on	Abdelhamid Abaaoud
Type	• Mass shooting • bombing • hostage-taking • suicide attack
Deaths	139
Injured (non-fatal)	352

Mass murder in Paris was perpetrated on Friday 13 November 2015, when a series of coordinated terrorist attacks — consisting of mass shootings, suicide bombings, and hostage-taking — occurred in the French capital and in Saint-Denis, one of its northern suburbs.

Official narrative

Beginning at 21:16 hours (CET), there were six mass shootings in central Paris and three separate suicide bombings outside the Stade de France football stadium, where France were playing Germany. The deadliest attack was at the Bataclan theatre, where attackers took hostages and engaged in a stand-off with police which ended at 00:58 hours on Saturday 14 November 2015.

Victims

139 people were killed, of whom:

• 129 immediate victims:
  • Bataclan theatre: 89
  • Le Carillon and Le Petit Cambodge: 11
  • La Casa Nostra: 5
  • Stade de France: 6
  • La Belle Équipe: 18
• 3 subsequent deaths
• 7 perpetrators ,

A further 415 were admitted to hospital with injuries sustained in the attacks, including 80 who were seriously injured. In addition to the victims, seven attackers died, and the authorities continued to search for any accomplices remaining at large. The attacks were the deadliest in France since the Second World War, and the deadliest in the European Union since the Madrid train bombings in 2004.

Perpetrators

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks. The Islamic State has referred to the Paris attacks as a "ghazwa" (religious raid). When performed within the context of Islamic warfare, a ghazwa's function is to weaken and demoralise an enemy in preparation for their eventual conquest and subjugation.

The Daily Mail reported Western "Security experts" as claiming that Friday's attacks may have been triggered by the reported killing of Jihadi John. by a US drone strike 24 hours earlier on Thursday 12 November 2015. However the planning, coordination and weapons/explosives distribution logistics of the attacks demonstrate that the gestation period of the attacks had to have been much more than 24 hours.

On 16 November 2015, the third day of national mourning in France, the commercially-controlled media named Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 27 year old Belgian of Moroccan origin, as the "mastermind" behind the attacks. Five of the jihadis who died in the attacks have been identified, and a manhunt has been launched for Salah Abdeslam, a municipal employee in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek, who is believed to have rented a car in Belgium used in the Paris attacks.

Motive

The commercially-controlled media have predictably promoted the official motive:- the "blowback" hypothesis. The Financial Times called the bombers "Islamic extremists" who objected to Paris as a capital of "abomination and perversion", while the New York Times speculated that it was retaliation against the foreign policy of François Hollande in relation to Muslims worldwide. The Guardian suggested it was retaliation for French airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.

Responses

France

French President François Hollande immediately declared the attacks an "Act of War" and announced the first state of emergency since the 2005 French riots, and placed temporary controls on the country's borders. People and organisations expressed solidarity including through social media. President Hollande declared the attacks an "act of war", and on 15 November 2015 launched France's largest single airstrike of Opération Chammal, its contribution to the anti-ISIS bombing campaign, by striking numerous targets in Al-Raqqah, Syria in retaliation.

Media comment

On 15 November 2015, writer and broadcaster Iain Macwhirter wrote an article which concluded "The one thing the terrorists want is for governments to launch another War on Terror, just as America did after 9/11. So let’s hear no more of it. The weapon Islamic extremists fear most is tolerance".

Background

France's military has been involved in airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since 19 September 2014, known by the codename Operation Chammal. In October 2015, France struck targets in Syria for the first time. ISIS specifically mentioned the airstrikes when they claimed responsibility for the attacks in Paris.

France had been on high alert for terrorism since the Charlie Hebdo events and the Île-de-France attacks. France had also increased security in anticipation of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, scheduled to be held in Paris from 30 November to 11 December 2015, and had restored border checks a week before the attacks. The Charlie Hebdo shooting in January 2015 occurred in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, where the Bataclan theatre is situated. France witnessed other, smaller, attacks throughout 2015, including the stabbing of three soldiers in Nice guarding a Jewish community centre in February; an attempt to blow up a factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier in June, resulting in the death of an employee; and a shooting and stabbing spree on a Thalys train in August 2015.

Two Jewish brothers, Pascal and Joël Laloux, owned the Bataclan theatre for more than 40 years until they sold it in September 2015. The venue had been threatened several times because of their public support of Israel. In 2011, a group calling itself "Army of Islam" threatened the theatre because of this support.

Recent mass murders

The Islamic State and its branches claimed responsibility for numerous deadly attacks which took place in the weeks leading up to the mass murder in Paris. On 12 November 2015, twin suicide bombings took place in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 43 people. On 31 October 2015, Metrojet Flight 9268, carrying mostly Russian passengers crashed in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, killing 224 people, for which IS's Sinai Province reportedly claimed responsibility.

Other Motives

Alternative media commentators have observed that the attacks were quickly seized upon by governments as a pretext for increased expenditure on the "war on terror". Craig Murray blogged that "this kind of sickening political opportunism is the true disrespect to the innocent dead." The attacks came a fortnight before a mass demonstration in Paris, planned to take place ahead of the 2015 UN Conference on Climate Change, was banned under the state of emergency.

See also

• Jerusalem Conference on International Terrorism

 

The Official Culprit

Name	Description
Abdelhamid Abaaoud	The official "mastermind" behind the mass murder in Paris - died conveniently in police shootout.

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References

This page imported content from Wikipedia on 16 November 2015.
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