November 2015 Paris, France Attacks

[MuffyBee]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/14/world/europe/paris-shooting-attacks.html
Paris Attacks Kill More Than 100, Police Say; Border Controls Tightened
November 13, 2015

PARIS — The Paris area reeled Friday night from a shooting rampage, explosions and mass hostage-taking that President François Hollande called an unprecedented terrorist attack on France. He announced sharply increased border controls and mobilized the military in a national emergency.

French television and news services quoted the police as saying around 100 people had been killed at a concert venue where hostages had been taken in a two-hour standoff with the police, and perhaps many more killed in apparently coordinated attacks outside the country’s main sports stadium and at least five other popular locations in the city. But estimates on the total number of dead varied widely in the confusion.
Witnesses on French television said the scene at the concert hall, which can seat as many as 1,500 people, was a massacre. Ambulances were seen racing back and forth in the area into the early hours of Saturday morning.
 
An explosion near the sports stadium, which French news services said may have been a suicide bombing, came as Germany and France were playing a soccer match, forcing a hasty evacuation of Mr. Hollande. As the scope of the assaults quickly became clear, he convened an emergency cabinet meeting and announced that France was placing severe restrictions on its border crossings.

“As I speak, terrorist attacks of an unprecedented scale are taking place in the Paris region,” he said in a nationally televised address. “There are several dozen dead, lots more wounded, it’s horrific.”

Mr. Hollande said that on his orders the government had “mobilized all the forces we can muster to neutralize the threats and secure all of the areas.”
 

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Twitter erupted with celebratory messages by members and sympathizers of the Islamic State, the extremist group based in Syria and Iraq that is under assault by major powers including the United States, France and Russia.
 
The main shooting appeared to have broken out at a popular music venue, The Bataclan, where the American band Eagles of Death Metal was among those playing, and French news services said as many as 100 hostages may have been taken there — many of whom apparently were killed later. Some accounts said grenades had been lobbed inside the music hall.

A witness quoted by BFM television said he heard rounds of automatic rifle fire and someone shouting “Allahu akbar!” at The Bataclan.
 
Despite the increased border security, air travel in and out of Paris appeared to be unaffected. Officials at Charles de Gaulle confirmed that flights were not suspended, although security had been heightened significantly. Both departing and arriving passengers and baggage were being screened thoroughly.

Germany’s Interior Minister, Thomas de Maizière, said early Saturday that he had offered to send military assistance to France if requested.

“I am in close contact with my French colleague and have offered assistance through German special forces,” Mr. de Maizière said in a statement.

Loretta E. Lynch, the United States attorney general, also offered help. “We stand in solidarity with France, as it has stood with us so often in the past,” she said in a statement. “This is a devastating attack on our shared values and we at the Department of Justice will do everything within our power to assist and work in partnership with our French law enforcement colleagues.”

American and European counterterrorism officials were reviewing wiretaps and other electronic surveillance records, but a senior American security official said there was no immediate indication that there had been suspicious chatter or other warning signs ahead of the attack.

Unlike the attacks against Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in January, terrorism experts said the targets of the Friday attacks had no apparent rationale. Instead, assailants appeared to strike at random in hip neighborhoods on a Friday night when many people would be starting to enjoy the weekend.

“It’s a Friday night and there’s a lot of people out, a lot of tourists out,” said a senior European counterterrorism official. “If you want maximum exposure you do it like this, in the dark when it’s scarier and more difficult for police to act.”

[MuffyBee]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34814203
Paris attacks: More than 120 killed at Bataclan and restaurants
November 13, 2015


France has declared a national state of emergency and has closed its borders after more than 120 people were killed in gun and bomb attacks in Paris.
At least 100 people are reported to have died at the Bataclan concert hall in central Paris.
Gunmen took many hostages there before being overpowered by police.
Others died in a reported suicide blast near the Stade de France and gun attacks on city centre restaurants. Five attackers are reported killed.
Paris residents have been asked to stay indoors and about 1,500 military personnel are being deployed across the city.
 

Attack sites:
* Bataclan concert venue, 50 boulevard Voltaire, 11th district - hostages held

* Le Carillon, 18 rue Alibert, 10th district - gun attack

* Le Petit Cambodge, 20 rue Alibert, 10th district - gun attack

* La Belle Equipe, 92 rue de Charonne, 11th district - gun attack

* Near Stade de France, St Denis, just north of Paris - reported suicide attack near venue as France v Germany football match played

* Reports of gunfire at at least one other site
 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/paris-terror-attacks/paris-attacks-isis-claims-responsibility-france-vows-merciless-response-n463441
Paris Attacks: ISIS Claims Responsibility, France Vows 'Merciless' Response
November 14, 2015

PARIS — French President Francois Hollande vowed a "merciless" response to the deadliest attacks on the country's soil since World War II as ISIS claimed responsibility Saturday for a coordinated assault on Paris.

A state of emergency was declared and France deployed 1,500 troops after a near-simultaneous series of explosions and shootings brought the city to a horrified standstill overnight. The death toll rose to 127 and 200 other people were wounded, officials said.

French police were hunting possible accomplices of eight assailants, who attacked concert-goers, cafe diners and soccer fans in at least six locations in the French capital. Authorities said that seven attackers blew themselves up, while the eighth was killed by police.

 

All museums, schools and libraries in Paris were ordered closed Saturday as investigators searched for clues following the bloodshed. The Disneyland theme park near the city was also shut.

The Bataclan concert hall in the lively 11th arrondissement was the scene of the night's worst carnage. Dozens of people there, according to the AP, when gunmen opened fire during a sell-out concert by American band Eagles of Death Metal.

The attackers held hundreds of people hostage before blowing themselves up. Footage obtained by Le Monde showed concert-goers hanging from venue's third-floor windows while others ran for their lives out a rear exit.

French police stormed the venue after midnight, rushing wounded to waiting ambulances as sirens wailed.

 
The siege of the concert hall came around the same time that three suicide bombers targeted spots near the national soccer stadium as the France played an exhibition game against Germany.
 

Meanwhile, gunmen targeted a string of cafes in a trendy neighborhood, which were crowded on an unusually balmy November night. At least 37 people were killed, Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins told Reuters.
 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/15/world/europe/isis-claims-responsibility-for-paris-attacks-calling-them-miracles.html
ISIS Claims Responsibility, Calling Attacks ‘First of the Storm’
November 14, 2015