With Paris is deep shock and grief, the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) claimed responsibility Saturday for the six coordinated terror attacks that rocked the French capital on Friday night, killing at least 127 people and wounding hundreds.
President François Hollande emerged from a crisis meeting of his defense council at the Elysée Palace shortly before noon, and told the nation that he regarded the attacks as “an act of war” against the country. “It is an act of war prepared and planned outside, with complicity from within the country,” he said. “It is an act of absolute barbarism. France will be ruthless in its response.”
Information slowly started to trickle out Saturday about the identities of the attackers. French police they had found a Syrian passport on the body of one of the eight attackers, all of whom died in the assault. And police one was a young French citizen who had previously been flagged by authorities for links to Islamist extremism, the Associated Press reports.
As French cabinet ministers huddled in the Elysee Palace, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on television that under the national state of emergency Hollande declared on Friday night, French police would now be able to declare curfews in specific areas or cordon them off, if they believed there were threats to security. They could also arrest “any individual who might threaten the actions of police authorities.” The French Army has deployed 1,000 additional troops to patrol Paris streets and stations, he said.
With the country reeling from the deadliest attack on the homeland since World War II—and its first ever suicide bombers—Hollande’s tough words raised the possibility that France will greatly intensify its military strikes against ISIS. They marked a sharp escalation from the mostly measured tones officials adopted over much of this year, when they have attempted to focus more on surveillance and intelligence gathering about French jihadists, than risking provoking more attacks by mounting military action. France joined the military coalition against ISIS late, launching its first strikes against the terror group in Syria only in late September, nearly nine months after the Charlie Hebdo attacks. That was despite the fact that French intelligence officials believe about 1,500 French citizens have traveled to Syria to fight with jihadist groups.
In a night of terrifying mayhem and bloodshed, two loud explosions erupted at the stadium at 9.20 p.m. on Friday, sending panic among the capacity crowd. Five minutes later gunmen opened fire at two restaurants in the eatern 10th district, which draws hundreds of people to its bars and street cafés on weekend nights. A second device exploded at the stadium five minutes after that, and within the next ten minutes there were explosions on the streets around the 10th district, and an attack at a sidewalk café. Four gunmen then stormed the Bataclan hall at 9.49 p.m. and began shooting dozens of people. Six minutes later, there was a third explosion at the stadium at 9.53 p.m. The French anti-terror forces stormed the theater shortly after midnight, killing the attackers and bringing the night of terror to an end.
The ISIS statement, written in French, made it clear that the attacks—on the national Stade de France stadium and the Bataclan hall—had been carefully crafted to strike while the city was in the throes of its typically raucous Friday evening partying. “Eight brothers carrying explosive belts and guns targeted areas in the heart of the French capital that were specifically chosen in advance,” the ISIS statement said. That included the stadium where “that imbecile François Hollande” was attending a major soccer matach against Germany and at the music concert, where “a party of perversity” was in progress.
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