Emmanuel Macron (President 2017–present) Élisabeth Borne (Prime Minister 2022–present) Gérald Darmanin (Minister of the Interior 2020–present) Sébastien Lecornu (Minister of the Armed Forces 2022–present) Thierry Burkhard (Chief of the Defence Staff 2021–present) Pierre Schill (Chief of the Army Staff 2021–present) Pierre Vandier (Chief of the Naval Staff 2020–present) Stéphane Mille (Chief of the Air and Space Force Staff 2021–present)
Terrorism in France refers to the terrorist attacks that have targeted the country and its population during the 20th and 21st centuries. Terrorism, in this case is much related to the country's history, international affairs and political approach. Legislation has been set up by lawmakers to fight terrorism in France.
CBC News reported in December 2018 that the number of people killed in terrorist attacks in France since 2015 was 249, with the number of wounded at 928.[19] Within the European Union, France is the most affected country with recent data showcasing a total of 82 Islamist attacks and 332 deaths from 1979 to 2021.[20]
Terrorist incidents map of France 1970–2015. Paris, Corsica and southwestern France are major places of incidents. A total of 2,616 incidents are plotted.Terrorism deaths in France recorded in the Global Terrorism Database. The spike in 2015 is over 6 times the previous maximum since 1970 and is indicated by a number off the scale.
History
Deaths and Injuries due to Terrorist incidents in France by Year[21][22]
France had its first occurrences with religious extremism in the 1980s due to French involvement in the Lebanese Civil War. In the 1990s, a series of attacks on French soil were executed by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria (GIA).
In the 1990–2010 time span, France experienced repeated attacks linked to international jihadist movements.[23]Le Monde reported on 26 July 2016 that "Islamist Terrorism" had caused 236 dead in France in the preceding 18-month period.[24]
In the 2015–2018 timespan in France, 249 people been killed in terrorist attacks and 928 wounded in a total of 22 terrorist attacks.[25]
The deadly attacks in 2015 in France changed the issue of Islamist radicalization from a security threat to also constitute a social problem. Prime minister François Hollande and prime minister Manuel Valls saw the fundamental values of the French republic being challenged and called them attacks against secular, enlightenment and democratic values along with "what makes us who we are".[23]
Although jihadists in the 2015-onward timeframe legitimized their attacks with a narrative of reprisal for France's participation in the international coalition fighting the Islamic State, Islamic terrorism in France has other, deeper and older causes. The main reasons France suffers frequent attacks are, in no particular order:[26]
France's secular domestic policies (Laïcité) which jihadists perceive to be hostile towards Islam. Also, France's status as an officially secular nation and jihadists label France as "the flagship of disbelief".[26]
France has a strong cultural tradition in comics, which in the context Muhammad cartoons is a question of freedom of expression.[27]
France's foreign policy towards Muslim countries and jihadist fronts. France is seen as the spearhead directed against jihadist groups in Africa, just as the United States is seen as the main force opposing jihadist groups elsewhere. France's former foreign policies such as that as its colonization of Muslim countries is also brought up in jihadist propaganda, for example, that the influence of French education, culture and political institutions had served to erase the Muslim identity of those colonies and their inhabitants.[28]
Jihadists consider France as a strong proponent of disbelief. For instance, Marianne, the national emblem of France, is considered as "a false idol" by jihadists and the French to be "idol worshippers". France also has no law against blasphemy and an anticlerical satirical press which is less respectful towards religion than that of the US or the United Kingdom. The French nation state is also perceived as an obstacle towards establishing a caliphate.[28]
In 2020 two Islamic terrorist attacks were foiled by authorities, bringing the total to 33 since 2017 according to Laurent Nuñez, the director of CNRLT, who declared that Sunni Islamist terrorism was a prioritised threat. Nuñez drew parallels between the three attacks of 2020 which all were attacks on "blasphemy and the will to avenge their prophet".[29]
Right-wing terrorism
France has a modern history of right-wing terrorism that dates back to the middle of the 20th century. Historically, right-wing terrorism was tied to rage over the loss of France's colonial possessions in Africa, particularly Algeria. In 1961, the Organisation armée secrète or OAS, a right-wing terrorist group that protested Algerian independence from France, launched a bomb attack on board a Strasbourg–Paris train which killed 28 people.[30]
On 14 December 1973, the far-right Charles Martel Group orchestrated a bomb attack at the Consulate of Algeria, killing 4 people and injuring 20.[31] The group targeted mostly Algerian targets several more times.
In the town of Toulon, a far-right extremist group called SOS-France existed. On 18 August 1986, four members were driving a car carrying explosives, apparently in an attempt to bomb the offices of SOS Racisme. However it exploded while they were still in it, killing all four of them.[32]
In more recent history, far-right extremism in France has been fueled by the rise of anti-immigrant far-right political movements. Neo-Nazi members of the French and European Nationalist Party were responsible for a pair of anti-immigrant terror bombings in 1988. Sonacotra hostels in Cagnes-sur-Mer and Cannes were bombed, killing Romanian immigrant George Iordachescu and injuring 16 people, mostly Tunisians. In an attempt to frame Jewish extremists for the Cagnes-sur-Mer bombing, the terrorists left leaflets bearing Stars of David and the name Masada at the scene, with the message "To destroy Israel, Islam has chosen the sword. For this choice, Islam will perish."[33]
On 28 May 2008, members of the neo-Nazi Nomad 88 group fired with machine guns at people from their car in Saint-Michel-sur-Orge.[34][35]
In the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo shooting, six mosques and a restaurant were attacked in acts deemed as right-wing terrorism by authorities.[36] The acts included grenade throwing, shooting, and use of an improvised explosive device.
List of significant terrorist incidents inside France
A man exits a car and throws a bomb into the compound of the Algerian Consulate; the subsequent explosion kills 4 and injures 20 more, 4 seriously.[39]
A bomb explodes at the Drugstore Saint Germain, part of the fashionable circuit of restaurants and bars on Paris's Left Bank, killing two and injuring 34.[40]
As İsmail Erez is returning from a reception – and as his vehicle approached the building of the Turkish Embassy in Paris – a group of 3–4 armed Armenian militants ambush the automobile, killing him and his driver Talip Yener.[41][42]
Three terrorists open fire on El Al passengers in the departure lounge. All three terrorists are killed, along with one policeman, and three French tourists are also injured.[43]
At about 21:00 (UTC+1), three hooded men armed with sub machine guns enter a quiet neighborhood bar and shoot 21 patrons, killing nine. The attack at Le Telephone bar was likely related to organized crime, although none of the attackers were identified.[44]
A gunman fires an automatic weapon amid crowds of Christmas shoppers, killing the director of the Turkish National Tourist Office, Yilmaz Colton, in Paris. The director was struck by three bullets while walking along the Champs-Élysées.[45]
A bomb blast destroys the ground floor of the Syrian Embassy, killing one and injuring 8 others. Three of those injured were in a serious condition, including a pregnant woman. The attack happened 2 hours before the arrival of then Foreign Minister of Syria, Abdel Halim Khaddam, in France.[46]
Former Iranian Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar escapes an assassination attempt in which a French policeman and a female neighbour are killed. Four other officers were wounded, one seriously. Allegedly posing as reporters, a trio of gunmen attempted to enter the exiled leader's apartment in Neuilly, a suburb of Paris. A police guard at an armored door to the residence resisted and a gunfight took place.[47][48]
Two gunmen storm the TurkishConsulate General in Lyon. The gunmen are unable to locate the Turkish consul general and open fire on the waiting area, killing two people and wounding eleven others, two seriously.[49]
A bomb went off outside the Union Libérale Israélite de France synagogue on Rue Copernic. The bomb had been hidden in the saddlebags of a motorcycle parked outside the synagogue on the eve of Simchat Torah. The explosion happened shortly before the end of services, however one of those killed were members of the congregation. French police initially suspected that the attack had been carried out by neo-Nazis, but later attributed it to the PFLP or one of its offshoots.[50][51][52][53]
An unknown gunman murders the Jewish owners of a Paris travel agency that specialized in tours to Israel. The assailant walked into the office of IT-Tours and fired from an automatic pistol, fatally wounding Edwin Douek, the proprietor. His wife, Michele, was killed instantly and a clerk was slightly wounded. Edwin Douek died of his wounds later in a hospital.[54]
Shortly after midnight, the militants' leader started the negotiations that led to the end of the ordeal at about 2 a.m. He was promised by French authorities that the four militants would receive political asylum. The next day, however, the French Government issued a statement saying that the men would have to stand trial on charges growing out of the assault, including the death of a Turkish guard.[56]
A explosion on a Paris-Toulouse express train kills five passengers and injures 27 near Ambazac. The blast in the baggage compartment of the Capitole Express was caused by several pounds of extremely powerful explosives, intentionally planted. In 2011 Carlos the Jackal was tried for involvement in the attack and was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life in prison.[57][58]
A powerful car bomb detonates in a crowded street in central Paris during the morning rush hour, killing a young woman and injuring 46 people. The apparent target are the offices of the Libyan newspaper Al-Watan al-Arabi. In 2011 Carlos the Jackal is tried for involvement in the attacks and is subsequently convicted and sentenced to life in prison.[58][59]
Two assailants throw grenades into the dining room of the Chez Jo Goldenberg restaurant and fire machine guns at the patrons. Six people die, including two American tourists, and 22 others are wounded in the attack on the Jewish restaurant in Paris's Marais district.[60][61]
A bomb, that police said was intended to target a United States diplomat, explodes on a luxurious residential street on the Left Bank near the Eiffel Tower, killing a bomb disposal expert and wounding two others. The bomb had been planted under the vehicle of Roderick Grant, commercial counselor at the United States Embassy in Paris.[62]
A bomb detonates at the Turkish-owned Marmara Voyages tourism agency in central Paris, killing one female employee and injuring four others. The blast reportedly caused the roof of the offices to collapse.[63][64]
A bomb explodes inside a suitcase at the Turkish Airlines check-in desk in the south terminal of the Orly Airport, sending flames through the crowd of passengers checking in for a flight to Istanbul. The bomb consisted of a half kilo of Semtex explosive connected to three portable gas bottles, which caused extensive burns on the victims. Three people were killed immediately in the blast and another five died in hospital. Four of the victims were French, two were Turkish, one was American, and one was Swedish.[65][66][67]
At approximately 4:00 (UTC+1), two gunmen shoot to dead seven people at a Sofitel Hotel in a popular holiday town. The victims include the French consul-general for Saarbrücken in West Germany, Lucien Andre. Three other hotel guests and three employees of Sofitel were also killed after apparently being rounded up and ushered into a hotel room.[68]
One man is killed and 26 people injured when multiple bombs destroyed the American, Soviet and Algerian pavilions at an international trade fair in Marseille. An Armenian guerrilla group took responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to the police. However then Interior Minister, Gaston Defferre, later stated that the far rightist Charles Martel Group had also taken responsibility for the blast.[69]
A bomb explodes in the two first-class cars of an AGV locomotive as it heads north toward Paris, from the Gare de Marseille-Saint-Charles. Although the train was travelling at about 160 kilometres per hour, it does not derail. Rescue workers find 2 passengers dead and 20 wounded, 5 of them seriously.
Half an hour later a second bomb explodes in the baggage checkroom of the main hall at the Gare de Marseille-Saint-Charles, killing 2 people and wounding at least 38. In 2011 Carlos the Jackal is tried for involvement in the attacks and is subsequently convicted and sentenced to life in prison.[58][70][71]
Gholam Ali Oveisi, a four-star general under Iran's late shah, and his brother, an ex-colonel, are killed by gunmen in central Paris. Their driver is also wounded.[72][73]
A lone gunman shoots and kills the United Arab Emirates' ambassador to France outside the diplomat's Paris home. Khalifa Ahmed Abdel Aziz al-Mubarak is killed in a district of Paris nearby the Eiffel tower.[74]
A bomb explodes at an entrance to the Paris branch of the British-owned department store Marks & Spencer as it opened for business, killing a man and wounding 15 other people. Telephone calls claiming responsibility were received from the Caribbean Revolutionary Alliance, an outlawed group seeking the independence of France's Caribbean territories; and from Direct Action, a left-wing extremist group that had announced its fusion with the Red Army Faction terrorists of Germany.[76]
Try Meng Huot – a doctor in chemistry who had been a lecturer at the University of Paris before he became a Khmer Rouge leader – is killed in his Parisian apartment alongside his wife and another unidentified couple.[77]
A bomb explodes in a packed mall of luxury boutiques on the Champs-Elysees, killing 2 people and wounding 28. A second bomb, found on a metro train, was defused by police demolition experts before it could explode. A terrorist organization calling itself the Committee of Solidarity With Arab and Middle Eastern Political Prisoners asserted responsibility for the attack in a handwritten letter sent to the Beirut office of a Western news agency.[78][79]
A bomb explodes inside the post office of the Hôtel de Ville, killing one person and wounding 18 others. The dead woman is identified as Marguerite Thuault, an employee of the post office.[81][82]
A bomb thrown from a passing car explodes in front of a Tati department store on the Left Bank, killing at least 5 people and wounding about 50. The blast, which occurred about 17:30, destroyed the entire front of the seven-story building on the rue de Rennes.[83]
A car explodes in the seafront market place at Toulon, killing the four occupants and setting fire to a nearby building. The police said it may have been carrying explosives in preparation for a bomb attack.[84]
A man and woman firing from a motorcycle kill the head of the French auto-maker Renault. Georges Besse is struck down by gunfire as he exited from his car, unaccompanied by bodyguards. He had been appointed chairman of the company in January 1985.[85]
At 3:00 (UTC+1), two homemade bombs explode at a crowded hostel for mostly North African immigrant workers, killing a Romanian national and wounding at least 12 others. The first blast destroyed a number of vehicles on the street, and following this a second blast, under the main stairwell of the building, destroyed the corridor into which many residents had come to check the first blast.[86][87]
Three police officers and a taxi driver are killed, and six other people – including two more officers – are wounded in separate shoot outs with two masked gunmen in Paris. The pair broke into a Paris police station to steal fire arms, then took a taxi driver hostage and forced him to drive them to the Bois de Vincennes park on the outskirts of Paris, where the final shoot out took place.[88]
Eight people are killed and 150 wounded in an explosion of a gas canister packed with nails and bolts on a Paris regional train at the Gare de Saint-Michel-Notre-Dame rail station. The bombing was claimed by the Armed Islamic Group as reprisals for French support for Algeria's army-backed government.[89][90]
A blast at 18:03 CET rips open the doors of a train on the southbound track of the Port Royal station of the regional express network on the Left Bank, scattering the wounded – totaling over 85 – over the platform. Three people succumb to injuries caused by the bomb made from a 28-pound camping gas canister filled with nails.[91][92]
A bomb explodes beside a McDonald's in a small town in Brittany, killing a restaurant worker. The explosion, in the Dinan area, happens at about 10:00 CET, near the restaurant's drive-through window.[93]
A parcel bomb explodes at a legal office in central Paris killing a secretary and seriously injuring a lawyer. Several other people were lightly hurt in the unclaimed blast shortly before 13:00 CET on the fourth floor of a building in the capital's fashionable eighth arrondissement or district.[94]
A group so-called Afghan Revolutionary Front left a bundle of dynamite in the third floor restroom of the menswear department inside a department store in Paris, and sent a letter to police saying several bombs were planted in the store and that they demanded that France withdraw from Afghanistan. The first device was defused and no casualties were reported.[95][96]
At around 14:00 CET, two uniformed soldiers were killed and a third was seriously injured outside a shopping centre in Montauban, while withdrawing money from a cash machine. They were all from the 17th Parachute Engineer Regiment (17e Régiment du génie parachutiste), whose barracks are close to the town. Corporal Abel Chennouf, 24, and Private Mohamed Legouad, 23, both of North African origin, were killed. Corporal Loïc Liber, 28, from Guadeloupe, was left in a coma.[97][98]
At about 8:00 CET, a man drove up to the Ozar Hatorah school on a motorcycle. He dismounted, and immediately opened fire toward the schoolyard. Four people died: 30-year-old Rabbi Jonathan (Yonatan) Sandler; his two oldest (out of three) children Aryeh, aged 6, and Gabriel, aged 3; and the head teacher's daughter, eight-year-old Miriam Monsonego, the girl shot in the head. Bryan Bijaoui, a 17-year-old Jewish boy, was gravely injured.[99][100][101]
At about 11:30 CET, two militants armed with assault rifles and other weapons forced their way into the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaperCharlie Hebdo in Paris. They fired up to 50 shots, initially killing 11 people and injuring 11 others, and shouted "Allahu Akbar" (Arabic for "God is [the] greatest") during their attack.
At about 9:30 CEST, a suspected Islamic militant decapitates a man and drives a company van into gas cylinders at an Air Products' gas factory near Lyon. The attacker placed the head of a victim on a fence railing, and planted two Jihadist flag banners alongside it. Video surveillance footage showed that the perpetrator also tried to ignite several canisters containing flammable chemicals.
At about 17:45 CEST, a 26-year-old Moroccan national carrying a Draco automatic rifle, magazines containing 300 rounds, a semi-automatic Luger pistol, and a box cutter, opened fire on a Thalys train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris. The gunman was attacked and subdued by seven men (four Americans, including an ex-pat, a Frenchman, an American-French citizen and a Briton), who beat him unconscious. The train was diverted to Arras where the man was arrested and identified, and two victims treated. The man had been previously flagged with an "S" card, France's warning alert for someone believed to be a national security risk.[102]
AK-47 assault rifles, hand grenades, various explosives, suicide vests
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
– Private Citizens & Property
On the evening of 13 November 2015, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks comprising mass shootings and suicide bombings occurred in Paris and Saint-Denis, France. Beginning at 21:16 CET,[103] three separate explosions and six mass shootings occurred, including bombings near the Stade de France in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis.[103][104] The deadliest attack was at the Bataclan theatre where attackers took hostages and engaged in a standoff with police until it was ended at 00:58 CET 14 November 2015. 130 civilians were killed in the attacks.
On 13 June 2016, a police officer and his wife, a police secretary, were stabbed to death in their home in Magnanville (about 55 km or 35 miles west of Paris) by a man acting on an "order" by ISIL to "kill infidels".
On 3 February 2017, armed with two 40-centimetre machetes a 29-year-old Egyptian terrorist attacked patrolling guards outside the Louvre museum. One of the guards was slightly injured during the attack as the perpetrator was shot dead.
On 20 April 2017, a police officer was killed and two more were injured alongside a tourist by an assailant wielding a Kalashnikov rifle on the Champs-Élysées, a shopping boulevard in Paris, France.
On 23 March 2018, a 25 year old assailant hijacked a car in Carcassonne, France, killing one. He then shot at some off duty officers and then drove to the nearby town of Trèbes where he stormed a local supermarket, killing three, including a policeman, and taking several hostage. He was later shot and killed.
A 21-year-old Chechnia-born man armed with a knife, killed one pedestrian and injured four more near the Palais Garnier, the opera house in Paris, France, before being fatally shot by police.
A 29-year-old French citizen of Algerian origin killed five civilians and wounded 11 others at a Christmas market in Strasbourg, France, before being killed in a shootout with police two days later.
A packet bomb explodes in front of a bakery in the pedestrian zone of Lyon. 13 people were wounded. A 24-year old male student from Algeria was arrested 3 days later. No group has claimed responsibility of the attack yet.
A radicalized Islamist stabbed four people to death, and injured two others at the central police headquarters in Paris. He was an administrative worker and had been recently converting to Salafist Islam. The perpetrator was shot instantly dead by other officers.
A man stabbed three people in Villejuif, a suburb of Paris, killing one person and wounding two others. The attacker was shot dead by police. The attacker was identified as Nathan Chiasson, a follower of Salafism, an extremist sect of Islam.
Two people were killed and five others wounded in a mass stabbing in Romans-sur-Isère, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. The suspect is a 30-year-old Sudanese asylum seeker who was arrested at the scene. French police have launched a terrorism investigation. Two other people related to the attacker were arrested later.
Three police officers were seriously injured when a driver rammed his vehicle into them in Colombes, Hauts-de-Seine. The perpetrator was arrested, and a source stated that the man carried out the attack to "avenge events in Palestine". The attacker had pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
A knife attack outside the former headquarters of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, France, left two people wounded. The building is now used by a television production company, and the two wounded victims are workers of the company. The suspected perpetrator and six other people were taken into custody. Interior minister Gérald Darmanin said that the attack was "clearly an act of Islamist terrorism".
A teacher was beheaded near a school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a suburb of Paris, the attacker was shot dead by police. The victim is said to have shown controversial cartoons of Muhammad to his students. President Emmanuel Macron called the attack an "Islamist terrorist attack".
Three people were killed in a stabbing attack at Notre-Dame de Nice, a Roman Catholic basilica, in Nice, France. One of the victims, a woman, was beheaded by the attacker. Several additional victims were injured. The attacker, who was shot by the police, was taken into custody. The Mayor of Nice and police said the incident appeared to be an Islamic extremism terrorist attack.
In 2015, a 26-year-old Moroccan man known as a member of the radical Islamist movement attempted to open fire with an AK47 assault rifle while on a high speed train one hour from Paris. He was quickly subdued by three United States servicemen who were on holiday.[115] See: 2015 Thalys train attack
Towards the end of March 2016, police arrested a Paris citizen named Reda Kriket, and upon searching his apartment, they discovered five assault rifles, a number of handguns, and an amount of chemical substances that could be used to make explosives.[116]
Under French law, any grave act of violence committed with intent "to seriously disturb public order through intimidation or terror", is an act of terrorism; the public prosecutor decides which cases will be investigated as acts of terrorism.[118] Writing in Le Figaro attorney Gilles-William Goldnadel characterized the public prosecutor's decision not to investigate a crime, Murder of Sarah Halimi as terrorism, as "purely and simply ideological", asserting that the killer, who recited verses form the Quran before breaking into an apartment and murdering a Jewish woman, "had the profile of a radical Islamist, and yet somehow there is a resistance to call a spade a spade".[118] Sarah Halimi's murder was heard by neighbors in her building and in neighboring building over an extended period of time. Neighbors also saw the killer throw his victim from the balcony of her home, and heard the killer praying aloud after the murder.[119][118] In September, 2017, the prosecutor officially characterized the murder as an "antisemitic" hate crime.[120]
According to Jean-Charles Brisard, director of the French think tank Center for the Analysis of Terrorism, "It needs to have a certain degree of willingness to disrupt the French public order."[clarification needed][118][121]
^"Le terrorisme islamiste a fait 236 morts en France en 18 mois". Le Monde (in French). 26 July 2016. Retrieved 27 July 2016. De l'attaque de « Charlie Hebdo » et de l'« Hyper casher » en janvier 2015 à la mort du père Jacques Hamel à Saint-Etienne-de-Rouvray, mardi 26 juillet, ce sont 236 personnes qui ont perdu la vie dans des attentats et attaques terroristes
^Dec 12, Jonathon Gatehouse · CBC News · Posted; December 12, 2018 2:23 PM ET | Last Updated. "By the numbers: France's battle against terror | CBC News". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 4 April 2019. Retrieved 23 April 2019. 22 — the number of terror incidents on French soil since the beginning of 2015. / 249 — the number of dead in those attacks. / 928 — the number of wounded.((cite web)): CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
