The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Paris attacks

  • Paris attacks: France holds memorial for victims

    France is to hold a national memorial service for the 130 people who died in the Paris attacks two weeks ago.

    Friday’s service in central Paris will bring together 1,000 people, including President Francois Hollande as well as survivors and victims’ families, the BBC reports.

    A minute’s silence will be held and the names of all the victims read out.

    Attackers with assault rifles and suicide belts targeted a number of sites in the capital. Islamic State later said it was behind the assault.

    In a series of co-ordinated attacks on November 13, the gunmen opened fire on restaurants and bars in the city and stormed a concert hall, where 89 people were shot dead.

    Three more attackers blew themselves up outside the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, after staff denied them entry to a football match between France and Germany.

    More than 350 people were injured in the attacks – the worst in recent French history.

  • ‘Suicide belt’ found on Paris street

    French police are examining what appears to be a suicide bomb belt dumped on a Paris street, 11 days after the attacks that killed 130 people.

    It is said to resemble belts used by the attackers and was found in a suburb which a suspect is thought to have passed through after the attacks, the BBC reports.

    The United States has issued a worldwide travel alert in response to the attacks.

    The Belgian capital Brussels remains on high alert. Schools and the metro will stay closed on Tuesday.

    They are due to reopen on Wednesday but the highest alert level will continue for at least another week.

    Authorities fear Paris-style attacks may be carried out in Brussels, where at least one Paris attacker lived. Prime Minister Charles Michel warned that the threat remained “imminent.”

    French President Francois Hollande is due to meet U.S President Barack Obama on Tuesday as he continues a busy week of international diplomacy during which he will meet all other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

  • France in danger of chemical attacker – PM

    French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, has warned that France could face chemical or biological attack from terror groups, as Member of Parliament debate extending the state of emergency after the Paris attacks.

    Belgian police are meanwhile raiding six properties in and around Brussels, linked to suspected Paris attackers Bilal Hadfi and Salah Abdeslam, the BBC reports.

    It remains unclear whether the suspected organiser of the attacks was killed in Wednesday’s raid in Paris.

    Friday’s attacks killed 129 people.

    Mr. Valls was addressing the French parliament ahead of a vote to extend the state of emergency by three months.

    He told MPs that “terrorism hit France, not because of what it is doing in Iraq and Syria but for what it is.”

    “What is new are the ways of operating; the ways of attacking and killings are evolving all the time,” the prime minister said.

    “The macabre imagination of those giving the orders is unlimited. Assault rifles, beheadings, suicide bombers, knives or all of these at once.”

     

  • Paris attacks: Father of suspected mastermind denounces him

    Abaaoud, father of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is suspected by European authorities of being one of the masterminds of the Paris terrorist attacks, has rejected his son’s behaviour and denounced him in Belgian media.

    The Moroccan immigrants said on Wednesday in an interview in Brussels that he was so ashamed of his son.

    “I am ashamed of Abdelhamid, my son, why would he want to kill innocent Belgians our family owes everything to this country.’’

    Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 28-year-old Belgian national who featured prominently in Islamic State propaganda this year, is suspected by European authorities of being one of the masterminds of the Paris terrorist attacks.

    A report from Belgium said Islamic State’s magazine Dabiq, which was distributed over social media, featured him in an edition that came out in February.

    “In one photo he is smiling, wearing military fatigues and holding an assault rifle.

    “In a second, he stands in front of an armoured car and holds the black Islamic State flag and a copy of the Koran,’’ it said.

    It said further that in the interview with Dabiq, he boasted about his involvement in a terrorist cell in Belgium.

    Authorities in Brussels have suspected he was involved with an Islamist gang. A police raid in January in the eastern city Verviers left two of the cell members dead.

    Abaaoud claimed there was a gun battle lasting 10 minutes at the end of which his two comrades, known as Abuz-Zubayr al-Baljiki and Abu-Khalid al-Baljiki were killed.

    He said both have desired for so long for death.

    Abaaoud said he travelled to Syria and claimed he was stopped by European border guards but managed to evade capture after the shootout in January.

    “All this proves that a Muslim should not fear the bloated image of the crusader intelligence.

    “My name and picture were all over the news yet I am able to stay in their homeland, plan operations against them, and leave safely when doing so became necessary,’’ he said.

    He also talked about smuggling himself into Europe to “terrorise the crusaders waging war against the Muslims’’.

    He was notoriously recorded in a 2014 video driving a car dragging mutilated bodies and boasting about killing apostates.

    Abaaoud claimed in an Islamic State publication that he evaded capture this year after European officials failed to recognise and arrest him.

  • Paris attacks: Police raid suspects’ home

    Explosions and heavy gunfire were heard in Paris as armed police searching for suspects from Friday’s attacks raided a flat in the suburb of Saint Denis.

    A female suspect blew herself up with a suicide belt, and some reports suggest two suspects died.

    Seven people are said to have been arrested, the BBC reports.

    Unconfirmed reports say at least one suspect remains at large.

    The focus of the operation is said to be the alleged mastermind of Friday’s attacks that killed 129 people.

    Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 27-year-old Belgian of Moroccan origin, was originally suspected of organising Friday’s attacks from Syria.

    Roads have been blocked off around Rue de la Republique in Saint Denis, in the same district as the Stade de France where suicide attackers detonated bombs on Friday.

    Truckloads of soldiers joined armed police at the scene. AFP news agency quoted police as saying the operation, which began at 04:20 local time (03.20 GMT), is now over.

    “I’ve been hearing gunshots continuously, like fireworks… There have been some breaks but, to me it sounds like continuous gunshots,” one resident, Benson Hoi, told the BBC.

     

  • German police detain Algerian over Paris attacks

    German police officers have detained an Algerian man in a refugee reception centre in connection with the attacks in Paris, officials have said.

    The man, detained in the town of Arnsberg in western Germany, is being investigated on suspicion of having told Syrian refugees at the centre in recent days that fear and terror would be spread in the French capital.

    He is also alleged to have spoken about a bomb. The senior public prosecutor in Arnsberg, Werner Wolff, said checks were being made into whether the allegations were credible.

    “There is currently an investigation into whether the man is an accomplice or a confidant,” Reuters quoted Ralf Jaeger, Interior Minister for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, as saying on the matter.

    Jaeger added that there was no solid evidence at the moment that the attackers in Paris had a connection to North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).

    “There is also no concrete evidence that attacks are planned in NRW or the (German) federal republic,” he said, adding that the situation was nonetheless “very serious.”

    The authorities had their eyes on some Salafi Islamists and German jihadists who had been in Syria and Iraq, said Jaeger.

    “At least 50 who have returned are known,” he added.

  • Paris attacks ‘planned from Syria’

    Friday’s attacks by terrorists in Paris were planned and organised from Syria, French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, has said.

    He added that the authorities believed new terror attacks were being planned in France and other European countries.

    Mr. Valls also said 150 raids on suspected militants had been carried out across France early on Monday, the BBC reports.

    A total of 129 people died in the attacks on bars and restaurants, a concert hall and the Stade de France.

    A huge manhunt is under way for surviving members and accomplices of the Islamist group that carried out the attacks.

    Police has named Brussels-born Salah Abdeslam, 26, as a key suspect. He was reportedly stopped by officers in the wake of the attacks – but then let go.

    Meanwhile, French aircraft has attacked Raqqa, the stronghold in Syria of the Islamic State group, which has said it carried out the attacks.

    Mr. Valls said that France was dealing with a “terrorist army,” rather than a single terrorist group.

    “We know that operations were being prepared and are still being prepared, not only against France but other European countries too,” he said, quoted by AFP news agency.

    The prime minister said more than 150 raids on militant targets in different areas of France took place early on Monday.

    Police sources told news agencies that properties in the Paris suburb of Bobigny, as well as the cities of Grenoble, Toulouse and Lyon, had been targeted.

    Seven attackers died in the assault on the French capital, most of them after detonating suicide belts.

     

  • Weapons found in Paris ‘getaway’ car

    Several Kalashnikovs have been found in an abandoned car believed to have been used by some of the Paris attackers, French judicial sources say.

    The black Seat car was found in the eastern Paris suburb of Montreuil on Sunday and suggests some of the attackers got away.

    Earlier, the first of the seven dead attackers was named as Ismail Mostefai.

    Six people close to him are in custody, the BBC says.

    France is in three days of mourning for the 129 people killed in the attacks.

    A special service for the families of the victims, the 350 people who were wounded, and the survivors will be held at Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral later on Sunday.

    Friday’s attacks, claimed by Islamic State (IS) militants, hit a concert hall, a major stadium, restaurants and bars in the French capital.

    Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said France will continue with air strikes against IS in Syria, and described the group as a very well-organised enemy.

    President Francois Hollande has cancelled his plans to attend the G-20 summit in Turkey and is holding meetings with various political leaders to discuss the crisis.

    The black Seat car, found in Montreuil, is believed to have been used by gunmen who opened fire at people in restaurants on Friday night, police said.

     

  • Buhari, Obama, Pope, other world leaders condemn Paris attacks

    Buhari, Obama, Pope, other world leaders condemn Paris attacks

    • Mourners express outrage

    President Muhammadu Buhari, President Barack Obama of the United States and Pope Francis  yesterday joined other world leaders in denouncing Friday night’s wave of bloody attacks in Paris that left over 127  people dead.

    Mourners across the globe reacted with tears, shows of solidarity and condemnations of the brains behind the assaults for which ISIS claimed responsibility.

    Buhari expressed shock and profound sadness over the dastardly and heinous terrorist attacks on innocent civilians.

    He sent sympathy on behalf of his government and Nigerians to President Francois Hollande and the people of France.

    He also extended sincere condolences to the families, relatives and friends of the victims of the s attacks.

    The bloodshed, he said, constituted an unacceptable affront to all human values and civilised norms.

    The President declared that Nigeria, as a country which has borne the terrible human cost of terrorist attacks, stands in full solidarity with the government and people of France as they mourn those who lost their lives in the incident.

    He asked all peace-loving nations of the world to intensify ongoing multilateral cooperation and collaborative actions aimed at bringing the scourge of international terrorism to a speedy end for the benefit of all nations.

    President Obama, in a solidarity address, at the White House said: “It’s an attack not just on the people of France. But this is an attack on all of humanity and the universal values we share.

    ”We’re going to do whatever it takes to work with the French people and with nations around the world to bring these terrorists to justice and to go after any terrorist networks that go after our people.

    “We are reminded in this time of tragedy that the bonds of liberty are not just the values French people share but we share.”

    In London, where 52 people were killed and hundreds wounded in a series of coordinated suicide bombings in 2005, British Prime Minister David Cameron said: “We will do whatever we can to help.”

    Queen Elizabeth II said she and her spouse Prince Philip were “deeply shocked”.

    Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo, the foreign minister of Spain, where 191 people were killed in train bombings in 2004, raised the specter of a jihadist attack.

    “All of this confirms that we are facing an unprecedented challenge, a hugely cruel challenge,” he told public television TVE.

    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose country was hit by two major attacks in 2006 and 2008 that saw a total of 355 people killed, said on Twitter the “news from Paris is anguishing & dreadful”.

    President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, where twin bombings on a peace rally in Ankara last month killed 102 people, offered his condolences.

    “As a country that knows very well the manner and consequences of terrorism, we understand perfectly the suffering that France is experiencing now,” he said.

    Iranian President Hassan Rouhani branded the attacks “crimes against humanity” as Tehran announced he would postpone a scheduled trip to Paris.

    European Union Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini tweeted that she was “in the process of following with pain and dread the events in Paris”.

    “Europe is with France and the French people,” she said.

    Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of neighboring Germany, said she was “profoundly shocked by the news and images from Paris” while Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders tweeted: “Shocked and appalled by new attacks in #Paris. Words are not enough.”

    And in Australia, where a lone gunman reportedly shouting Islamist slogans killed a man outside police headquarters in Sydney last month, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said: “This is indeed a black Friday for France and for the world”.

    Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull praised the French people for their response, describing France as “the home of freedom”.

    “It is a global struggle for freedom against those who seek to suppress it and seek to assert some form of religious tyranny; a threat in the name of God but is truthfully the work of the devil,” he said.

    He called the attacks “anguishing and dreadful.”

    “We share the sadness and the pain of the French people,” said Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

    “The Paris tragedy requires of us all to unite in the fight against extremism.”

    Chinese President Xi Jinping said: “In these tragic times for the French people, I want… to condemn in the strongest ways this barbarous act.”

    Pope Francis expressed his profound distress and solidarity with the casualties. “There cannot be justification, religious or human” for the attacks, he said.

    Bouquets, candles and messages of condolence were laid at French embassies worldwide.

    Buildings ranging from the Sydney Opera House in Australia to One World Trade Center in New York were lit up in the colours of the French flag.

    In Madrid and Barcelona, hundreds stood for a minute’s silence outside city hall.

    The coordinated killings reverberated around the world after the shootings by gunmen shouting “Allahu akbar”, explosions and a hostage-taking at a popular concert venue on Friday in the French capital.

    The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a “blessed attack on… Crusader France,” which included an assault on the national sports stadium and the Bataclan concert hall.

    France is part of a US-led coalition conducting an air war against IS in Syria and Iraq where IS declared a caliphate last year after seizing swathes of both countries.

    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that French policy had contributed to the “spread of terrorism” that culminated in the Paris attacks.

    “The terrorist attacks that targeted the French capital Paris cannot be separated from what happened in the Lebanese capital Beirut lately and from what has been happening in Syria for the past five years and in other areas,” he said.

    The outpouring of support for France generated massive amounts of posts on social media, with the hastags #prayforparis and #jesuisparis going viral.

  • Paris attacks: Four important lessons

    French President Francois Hollande has contended unambiguously that ISIS launched the Paris terrorist attacks Friday night, and ISIS itself has now claimed responsibility.  It is not too early, even now, to draw important lessons from this tragedy.  We do so both to prevent the near-term recurrence of more terrorist violence against the West, and to address seriously the broader, global Islamicist threat that has been growing, not diminishing, in recent years.  We certainly have at least enough information and experience to draw working hypotheses for the next days and weeks until more details become available.

    Indeed, this is a time for statesmanship, resolve and determination, not for sweeping the cruel reality of what has just happened under the rug.  Our ability to safeguard the future may well depend in substantial part on what we do and how we do it in just these coming days and weeks.

    First, the Paris attacks were not “senseless violence” as some media commentators observed as the news coverage unfolded.

    Nor were they “an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share,” as President Obama said late Friday evening.

    These Islamic radicals know who their enemies are, and have for decades. It is we — or at least some of our leaders — who have forgotten who is under attack.

    This coordinated, well-planned and, sadly, well-executed series of assaults on innocent civilians was deliberate, ideologically motivated, and carefully targeted.

    President Hollande was himself attending the soccer match at the Stade de France, where suicide bombers struck, and might well have been one of the targets.

    At a minimum, the terrorists showed they could strike in close physical proximity to the head of the French government.

    We should be immediately concerned that other attacks in prominent Western capitals, against senior European and U.S. government officials and the West generally may be in the offing.

    Second, we should not view the appropriate American and Western response as “bringing these terrorists to justice,” in President Obama’s words.  This is not a matter for the criminal law, as many American political and academic leaders, including the President, have insisted, even after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

    This is a war, as President Hollande has forthrightly called it, not a slightly enhanced version of thieves knocking over the corner grocery store within an ordered civil society.  And the mechanism of response must be to destroy the source of the threat, not prosecute it, not contain it, not hope that we will “ultimately” destroy it.  “Ultimately” is too far away.

    Third, in light of Paris and the continuing threat of terrorism it so graphically conveys, we need a more sensible national conversation about the need for effective intelligence gathering to uncover and prevent such tragedies before they occur.

    Knee-jerk, uninformed and often wildly inaccurate criticisms of programs (such as several authorized in the wake of 9/11 in the Patriot Act) have created a widespread misimpression in the American public about what exactly our intelligence agencies have been doing and whether there was a “threat” to civil liberties. Now is the time to correct these misimpressions, and to rebut the unfounded criticisms that have in too many cases become the conventional wisdom.

    Similarly, in the debate over immigration and refugees, it is time to take into account the national security issues at stake.

    • Bolton was U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 through 2006.