The November 2015 Paris attacks (French: Attentats du 13-Novembre) were a series of coordinated terrorist attacks[13][14] that took place on Friday,[15][16] 13 November 2015 in Paris, France, and the city's northern suburb, Saint-Denis. Beginning at 9:15 p.m., three suicide bombers struck outside the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, during an international football match, after failing to gain entry to the stadium. Another group of attackers then fired on crowded cafés and restaurants in Paris, with one of them also detonating an explosive, killing himself in the process. A third group carried out another mass shooting and took hostages at an Eagles of Death Metal concert attended by 1,500 people in the Bataclan theatre, leading to a stand-off with police. The attackers were either shot or blew themselves up when police raided the theatre.[17]
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attacks (as they had done with the Beirut attacks a day prior),[9][10] saying that it was retaliation for French airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq.[11][12] The President of France, François Hollande, said the attacks were an act of war by Islamic State.[26][27][28] The attacks were planned in Syria and organised by a terrorist cell based in Belgium.[29] Two of the Paris attackers were Iraqis, but most were born in France or Belgium,[30][31] and had fought in Syria.[32] Some of the attackers had returned to Europe among the flow of migrants and refugees from Syria.[33][34]
Terror Strike 2015 full movie download
In response to the attacks, a three-month state of emergency was declared across the country to help fight terrorism, which involved the banning of public demonstrations, and allowing the police to carry out searches without a warrant, put anyone under house arrest without trial, and block websites that encouraged acts of terrorism.[35] On 15 November, France launched the biggest airstrike of Opération Chammal, its part in the bombing campaign against Islamic State.[36] The authorities searched for surviving attackers and accomplices. On 18 November, the suspected lead operative of the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was killed in a police raid in Saint-Denis, along with two others.[37]
France had been on high alert for terrorism since the Charlie Hebdo shooting and a series of related attacks in January by militants belonging to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,[25] and had increased security in anticipation of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, scheduled to be held in Paris at the beginning of December, as well as reinstating border checks a week before the attacks.[25]
This was one of two terrorist cells sent to Europe by the Islamic State in 2015, the other cell consisting of three Syrians was apprehended by German special forces in Schleswig-Holstein in mid September 2016.[55]
Rows of people were mown down by gunfire or were forced to drop to the ground to avoid being shot. Survivors described hundreds of people lying beside and on top of each other in pools of blood, screaming in terror and pain. The gunmen also fired up into the balconies, and dead bodies fell down onto the stalls below. For a few minutes, the hall was plunged into darkness, with only the flashes from the assault rifles as the gunmen kept shooting. The terrorists shouted that they were there because of the French airstrikes against Islamic State.[88] Another witness who was inside the Bataclan heard a gunman say, "This is because of all the harm done by Hollande to Muslims all over the world."[94]
Syrian and Egyptian passports were found near the bodies of two of the perpetrators at two attack sites,[115] but Egyptian authorities said the passport belonged to a victim, Aleed Abdel-Razzak, and not one of the perpetrators.[116] By 16 November, the focus of the French and Belgian investigation turned to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the radical jihadist they believed was the leader of the plot.[117] Abaaoud had escaped to Syria[118][119] after having been suspected in other plots in Belgium and France, including the thwarted 2015 Thalys train attack.[120] Abaaoud had recruited an extensive network of accomplices, including two brothers, Brahim Abdeslam and Salah Abdeslam, to execute terrorist attacks; Abaaoud was killed in the Saint-Denis raid on 18 November.[121][122][123]
Jawad Bendaoud was arrested 18 November 2015 for "criminal terrorist association for the purpose of committing violent action", as he provided lodging for Abaaoud, Hasna Aït Boulahcen, and a third man. In September 2017, the prosecuting judge filed for Bendaoud's trial for "concealment of terrorist criminals", a charge with a maximum penalty of six years.[150][151]
President Hollande issued a statement asking the French people to remain strong in the face of the attacks.[199][200] He also visited the Bataclan theatre and vowed to "mercilessly" fight against terrorism.[77] Hollande chaired an emergency meeting of the French Cabinet that night and directed his national security council to meet the next morning.[77] The authorities urged the residents of Paris to stay indoors for their own safety and declared a state of emergency.[75][201][202] Hollande cancelled his trip to the 2015 G-20 Antalya summit because of the attacks, instead sending Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Finance Minister Michel Sapin as his representatives.[203] On 14 November, Hollande announced three days of national mourning.[204] On 16 November, Hollande convened a special Congress of the French Parliament to address the attack and lay out legislative and diplomatic plans he wanted to take in response to them. These proposals included an extension of the state of emergency for three months, changes to the French constitution, one of which would have enabled France to protect itself from dual citizens who might pose a risk, and an increase in military attacks against ISIL.[205]
In July 2016 the French government published the report of a commission of inquiry, presided over by Georges Fenech, into possible security failings relating to the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. The report recommended the establishment of a single "national anti-terrorism agency".[208][209]
On 15 November, the French Air Force launched the biggest airstrike of Opération Chammal, its bombing campaign against ISIL, sending 10 aircraft to drop 20 bombs on Raqqa, the city where ISIL is based.[136] On 16 November, the French Air Force carried out more airstrikes on ISIL targets in Raqqa, including a command centre and a training camp.[211]On 18 November 2015, French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle left its home port of Toulon heading towards the eastern Mediterranean to support bombing operations carried out by the international coalition.[212] This decision was taken before the November attacks but was accelerated by the events.
French authorities regularly gave detailed information to US authorities on the whereabouts of high-ranking IS members in the Syria-Iraq zone to be tracked and killed. This cooperation led to American air strikes being able to kill the planners of 13 November 2015 attacks. United States authorities cooperated as they consider that if terrorist attacks hadn't taken place in France, they would have done so in the US instead.[124]
However, in the election campaign for the regional elections of France, to begin on 6 December 2015, Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right Front National party who was vying to be president of the Nord-Pas de Calais area, was recommending hardline security measures. She was getting a great deal of media attention with her strong anti-immigrant stance and may have been helping to sway public opinion across France. "The influx of migrants must be stopped," Le Pen told the CBC in an interview.[218] Le Pen was doing well in opinion polls as of early December 2015. Since the elections would start only weeks after the Paris attacks, she was thought to be getting dividends from the timing, when the fear of terrorism was still very strong.[219]
Starting on 21 November 2015, the government of Belgium imposed a security lockdown on Brussels, including the closure of shops, schools, public transportation, due to information about potential terrorist attacks in the wake of the series of coordinated attacks in Paris.[262][263][264][265][266] One of the perpetrators of the attack, Belgian-born French national Salah Abdeslam, was thought to be hiding in the city. As a result of warnings of a serious and imminent threat, the terror alert level was raised to the highest level (four) across the Brussels metropolitan area, and people were advised not to congregate publicly, effectively putting the city under lockdown.[262][263][265][266]
One of the people who was present in the Bataclan theatre on 13 November 2015 during the terrorist attacks was a French artist who works under the pseudonym Fred Dewilde. In October 2016, he published a graphic novel about his firsthand experience of these tragic events, named Mon Bataclan.[300][301][302]
IS was notable for its public beheadings of Western captives, its large contingent of foreign fighters, and its substantial media presence. On the ground, IS displayed brutal efficiency and violence in battles against the Assad regime and Syrian-allied Shia forces, Syrian opposition groups, the Iraqi military, and the Kurdish peshmerga. The United States, in conjunction with European and Arab allies, began airstrikes against the group in fall 2014. By 2017, IS had lost control of its largest population centers and began to revert to more traditional terrorist tactics, developing sleeper cells and assimilating into the broader population. On March 23, 2019, IS lost its final piece of territory in Baghuz, Syria. As of April 2021, the group still lacks control over large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria.[8] However, IS remains highly active and continues to launch small- and large-scale terrorist attacks within the region. 2ff7e9595c
Comments