November 2015 Paris attacks
A series of coordinated Islamist terrorist attacks took place on Friday, 13 November 2015 in Paris, France, and the city's northern suburb, Saint-Denis. Beginning at 21:16, three suicide bombers struck outside the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, during an international soccer 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 detonated suicide vests when police raided the theatre.
The attackers killed 130 people, including 90 at the Bataclan theatre. Another 416 people were injured, almost 100 critically. Seven of the attackers were also killed. The attacks were the deadliest in the European Union since the Madrid train bombings of 2004, and the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of France. The attacks came one day after similar attacks in Beirut, Lebanon, and thirteen days after the bombing of a Russian airliner over the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. France had been on high alert since the January 2015 attacks on Charlie Hebdo offices and a Jewish supermarket in Paris that killed 17 people.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying that it was retaliation for French airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq. The president of France, François Hollande, said the attacks were an act of war by the Islamic State. The attacks were planned in Syria and organised by a terrorist cell based in Belgium. Two of the Paris attackers were Iraqis, but most were born in France or Belgium, and had fought in Syria. Some of the attackers had returned to Europe among the flow of migrants and refugees from Syria.
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. On 15 November, France launched the biggest airstrike of Opération Chammal, its part in the bombing campaign against Islamic State. 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.
Background
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, 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.Throughout 2015, France witnessed smaller attacks: the February stabbing of three soldiers guarding a Jewish community centre in Nice, the June attempt to blow up a factory in Saint-Quentin Fallavier, and the August shooting and stabbing attack on a passenger train.
The Bataclan theatre had been threatened a number of times because of its support for Jewish organisations and Israel. Two Jewish brothers, Pascal and Joël Laloux, owned the Bataclan for more than 40 years before selling it in September 2015. In 2011, a group calling itself Army of Islam told French security services they had planned an attack on the Bataclan because its owners were Jewish.
In the weeks leading up to the Paris attacks, ISIL and its branches had claimed responsibility for several other attacks: the downing of Metrojet Flight 9268 on 31 October and the suicide bombings in Beirut on 12 November.
Intelligence agencies in Turkey and Iraq had reportedly warned of an imminent attack on France months beforehand, but said they never heard back from the French authorities until after the attacks. According to The Irish Times, a senior French security official said they receive this kind of correspondence "every day".
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 police in Schleswig-Holstein in mid September 2016.
Attacks
Three groups of men launched six distinct attacks: three suicide bombings in one attack, a fourth suicide bombing in another attack, and shootings at four locations. The shootings were in the vicinity of the rue Alibert, the rue de la Fontaine-au-Roi, the rue de Charonne, the Bataclan theatre, and avenue de la République. Three explosions occurred near the Stade de France, another on boulevard Voltaire, and two of the Bataclan shooters also detonated their suicide vests as police ended the standoff. According to the Paris prosecutor, the attackers wore suicide vests that used acetone peroxide as an explosive. French police reports on cellphones recovered from crime scenes showed that the attacks were being coordinated in real time from Brussels, Belgium, the location of origin of the terrorist cell that the Paris attackers were members of.Stade de France bombings
Three explosions occurred near the country's national sports stadium, the Stade de France, in the suburb of Saint-Denis, resulting in four deaths, including the three suicide bombers. The explosions happened at 21:16, 21:19, and 21:53. At the time, the stadium was hosting an international friendly soccer match between France and Germany, which President Hollande was attending. The suicide bombers arrived slightly late for the game, two of them wearing Bayern-Munich tracksuits as disguises, and eyewitness reports indicated they did not have tickets, resulting in them being turned away by security guards several times.The first explosion near the stadium occurred about 20 minutes after the start of the game. The first bomber, a man under the pseudonym 'Ahmad al-Mohammad', was prevented from entering the stadium after a security guard patted him down and found the explosive vest. A few seconds after being turned away, he detonated the vest outside the security gate, killing himself and a bystander. Investigators later surmised that the first bomber had planned to detonate his vest within the stadium, triggering the crowd's panicked exit onto the streets where the two other bombers were lying in wait. Three minutes after the first bombing, the second bomber, a man under the pseudonym 'M al-Mahmod', blew himself up outside another security gate after repeatedly failing to find and enter a crowd of people. Another 34 minutes after that, Bilal Hadfi's vest detonated outside a McDonald's restaurant. Moments before, a woman encountered him in an alley and he asked her for directions to the McDonald's. As the explosion happened, people were being evacuated out of the McDonald's restaurant. According to some reports, the location of the third explosion was at a McDonald's restaurant, where over 50 people were injured, seven seriously; others state the bomb detonated some distance away from any discernible target.
Hollande was evacuated from the stadium at half-time, while the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, remained at the stadium. Hollande met with his interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve to co-ordinate a response to the emergency. Two of the explosions were heard on the live televised broadcast of the match; both soccer coaches were informed by French officials of a developing crisis, but players and fans were kept unaware of it until the game had finished. Hollande, concerned that the safety of the crowd outside the stadium could not be assured if the match was immediately canceled, decided that the game should continue without a public announcement.
Following the game, fans were brought onto the pitch to await evacuation as police monitored all the exits around the venue. Security sources said all three explosions were suicide bombings. The Germany national football team was advised not to return to their hotel, where there had been a bomb threat earlier in the day, and they spent the night in the stadium on mattresses, along with the France team, who stayed with them in a display of camaraderie.
Restaurant shootings and bombing
The first shootings occurred around 21:25 on the rue Bichat and the rue Alibert, near the Canal Saint-Martin in the 10th arrondissement. The three Belgian-Moroccan attackers, including ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud, Brahim Abdeslam and Chakib Akrouh emerged from a rental SEAT León before killing the driver of a car in front of them and then proceeding to shoot at people outside Le Carillon, a café and bar. Next, they crossed the rue Bichat and shot people inside the restaurant Le Petit Cambodge. According to French police, an eyewitness said one of the gunmen shouted "Allahu Akbar". A total of thirteen people were killed at these locations, and ten others were critically injured. Afterwards, the assailants fled in the SEAT León. Doctors and nurses from the nearby Hôpital Saint-Louis were in Le Carillon when the attacks happened and supplied emergency assistance to the wounded.At 21:32, the attackers arrived outside Café Bonne Bière, located close to the terrace of the Italian restaurant La Casa Nostra, on the rue de la Fontaine-au-Roi. There, they shouted "Allahu Akbar" again and opened fire on revelers. The Paris prosecutor said five people were killed, and eight others were injured. An eyewitness reported seeing a gunman firing short bursts. The assailants then fled again in the SEAT León.
At 21:36, the assailants arrived at the restaurant La Belle Équipe on the rue de Charonne in the 11th arrondissement. They fired for several minutes at the outdoor terrace, before returning to the SEAT León and driving away. Twenty-one people were killed, and seven others were left in critical condition. Many of the deceased victims at the targeted restaurants and cafés had been sitting on the outdoor terraces when they were shot.
At 21:40, Brahim Abdeslam was dropped off at the boulevard Voltaire in the 11th arrondissement, near the place de la Nation. He sat down at the interior terrace of the Comptoir Voltaire café, wearing a hooded jacket over several layers of clothing. After placing an order, he smiled at patrons and apologised for interrupting their dinner. Finally, he detonated his explosive vest, killing himself and injuring fifteen people, one of them seriously.