Updated: Paris Again! ISIS wreak revenge
For an informed Opinion piece on the horrors of Paris please click HERE
As UK and US are slapping each other on the back for having killed Mohammed Emwazi aka Jihadi John last night ISIS have wrestled the initiative back with an ongoing murderous attack in Paris. The attacks are unlikely to be linked to Emwazi’s death.
Intelligence from GlobalRiskAwareness who are monitoring ISIS communications has identified probable suicide bomber attacks on the Stade de France and elsewhere. As events unfolded through the night these were confirmed.
First reports of gunfire came from Le Carillon bar, at 18 rue Alibert, witnesses then describe how the man then crossed the road and turned his gun on a restaurant, Le Petit Cambodge (Little Cambodia). Then came an attack on diners a few streets south of rue Alibert, on the terrace of La Casa Nostra pizzeria, in rue de la Fontaine au Roi. In the North of Paris, France and Germany were playing a friendly football match at the Stade de France stadium, President Hollande was there. About half an hour after kick-off, the first of at least two explosions heard within the stadium occurred and the president was immediately led to safety. Reports received by Security News Desk suggested there were two suicide bombers attacking fast food outlets and a brasserie near the stadium.
The next reports of shootings came to the south of the first restaurant attacks, at La Belle Equipe bar in the rue de Charonne in the 11th district; two men were seen opening fire, spraying bullets at the terrace of the cafe. The deadliest attack of the night came in the 11th district in Boulevard Voltaire where several gunmen raided a concert venue where the American rock group Eagles of Death Metal, was playing. The 1,500-seat hall was sold out and at least 100 people were killed as the attackers had stormed the hall with one apparently shouting “God is great” in Arabic. As Police stormed the venue, one attacker was shot dead and two others blew themselves up.
A sickening ISIS post on twitter says “#ISIS supporters portraying the allegedly killed #JihadiJohn is executing #France President Hollande in #Paris.” And they post a photo shopped picture of Jihadi John ready to execute the French President Hollande.
Another tweet from within Syria says “Kill the Hostages they are all Shāyateen! Including the band who was playing in the theatre worshipping the Shāytan!” (Shāytan means the Devil or an evil spirit).
ISIS inside Syria are celebrating on social media “#ISIS celebrating Paris attack under an Arabic hashtag #باريس_تتعل. which translates: “Paris Burns”.”
What is not clear is who the attackers are, how they got to Paris and prepared for this extremely well planned and coordinated series of attacks which they are describing as “a major offensive to capture Paris”. It will take some time to see if any of the attackers came in with the refugees flowing into Europe from Syria, Libya and elsewhere.
Speaking exclusively to Security News Desk James Abernethy a former British Intelligence officer and terrorism expert said, “ISIS are trying to link these attacks to the killing of Jihadi John to regain the information war. The reality is that they will have been planned for quite some time. It will have taken them weeks if not months to pull the resources together, carry out reconnaissance on potential targets and get people, weapons and explosives into the right place. Given the collective nature of the incidents and their boldness I will be surprised if the French security forces have not seen some indicator no matter how small that will have been missed in the vast volume of information and intelligence received daily.”
In reports just in from Global Risk Awareness the first attacker has been identified from an ISIS source as 28 year old Bassam Al Sukhni however, this has yet to be confirmed.
Further traffic on twitter overnight included pro ISIS accounts speaking of 12 Jihadis carrying out the Paris attacks.
In a post this morning and ISIS spokesman clearly outlines ho
w ISIS intend to bring their war to Paris, Rome and Andalusia. James Abernethy examined this statement and told Security News Desk, “They have been specific in mentioning 3 areas of Europe and after having demonstrated their capability in Paris I would have Rome and Andalusia on the highest alert. However, looking at the psychology of ISIS this is more a warning to European and Western cities and regions. We can expect some form of activity in other areas in the coming days.”
This morning ISIS related twitter accounts have stated that the Al-Hayat Media Centre, official publication arm of the Islamic State has claimed Paris attacks. However on the ISIS daily update there is no formal claim to the Paris attacks but soon after ISIS released formal statements in Arabic, French and English claiming responsibility in the text it says “Eight brothers with explosive belts and assault rifles targeted carefully chosen places in the heart of (Paris).”
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German media is reporting that a man from Montenegro was arrested on the Salzburg-Munich highway last night, and is believed to be connected to the Paris attacks. The arrest happened before the attack and weapons and explosives (TNT) were found in his car.
Abernethy speculated to Security News Desk, “Whilst it is too early to confirm, if this link is proven and given the France, Germany football match last night there is a possibility that at least an element of this attack could have come from Germany and entered France with the traffic heading for the football.”
Reuters is reporting that ISIS released an undated video on Saturday claiming responsibility for the Paris attacks, however, Global Risk Awareness told Security News Desk that this video is from March/April 2015 so is unrelated. However, ISIS did release a video on 22 July saying in it “We will fill the streets of Paris with dead bodies”. Vasco Amador from Global Risk Awareness said, “This would fit as the start of the planning phase for such a complex operation as horrifically unfolded last night”.
Vasco Amador from Global Risk Awareness said of the attack’s, “The model used in Paris was very similar of the Mumbai attacks on November 26th, 2008. The last one carried out by ten mercenaries fighting for Lashar – e – Taiba, an organisation affiliated with AQ that operates in India, Pakistan and Kashmir, that left 173 people died.
We should not underestimate the complexity of these attacks and the planning, training and logistic support needed to execute them safely. Such large operations should be easily detectable by the security services. In Paris they were not so we have to examine every detail of the people, their associates and their tactics to understand how they did it to implement prper countermeasures. Until then we should avoid idle and often unhelpful speculation.”
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