From 7 to 9 January 2015,
terrorist attacks
The following is a list of terrorist incidents that have not been carried out by a state or its forces (see state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism). Assassinations are listed at List of assassinated people.
Definitions of terrori ...
occurred across the
Île-de-France
The Île-de-France (, ; literally "Isle of France") is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France. Centred on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the country and often called the ''Région parisienne'' (; en, Pa ...
region, particularly in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
. Three attackers killed a total of 17 in four shooting attacks, and police then killed the three assailants.
The attacks also wounded 22 other people. A fifth shooting attack did not result in any fatalities.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ( ar-at, تنظيم القاعدة في جزيرة العرب, Tanẓīm al-Qā‘idah fī Jazīrat al-‘Arab, lit=Organization of the Base in the Arabian Peninsula or , ''Tanẓīm Qā‘idat al-Jihād fī Jaz ...
(AQAP) claimed responsibility and said that the coordinated attacks had been planned for years.
[
] The claim of responsibility for the deadly attack on the magazine came in a video showing AQAP commander
Nasr Ibn Ali al-Ansi, with gunmen in the background that were later identified as the Kouachi brothers. However, while authorities say the video is authentic, there is no proof that AQAP helped to carry out the attacks.
Amedy Coulibaly
Amedy Coulibaly (; 27 February 1982 – 9 January 2015) was a Malian-French man who was the prime suspect in the Montrouge shooting, in which municipal police officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe was shot and killed, and was the hostage-taker and gu ...
, who committed another leg of the attacks (the Montrouge shooting and the
Hypercacher Kosher Supermarket siege
On 9 January 2015, Amedy Coulibaly, armed with a submachine gun, an assault rifle, and two Tokarev pistols, entered and attacked a Hypercacher kosher supermarket in Porte de Vincennes in Paris, France. There, Coulibaly murdered four Jewish ho ...
) claimed that he belonged to
ISIS
Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...
before he died.
On December 16, 2020, 14 people who were accomplices to both the Jewish supermarket attack and the Charlie Hebdo shooting, including Coulibaly's former partner
Hayat Boumeddiene
Hayat Boumeddiene (born 26 June 1988) is currently being sought by French police as a suspected accomplice of her partner, Amedy Coulibaly, who was the main suspect for the Montrouge shooting, in which municipal police officer Clarissa Jean-Phi ...
, were convicted.
However, three of these accomplices, including Boumeddiene, were not yet captured and were
tried in absentia
Trial in absentia is a criminal proceeding in a court of law in which the person who is subject to it is not physically present at those proceedings. is Latin for "in (the) absence". Its meaning varies by jurisdiction and legal system.
In comm ...
.
Attack events summary
The attacks began on 7 January, when two gunmen
attacked the headquarters of the satirical newspaper ''
Charlie Hebdo,'' killing 12 people and wounding 12 others before escaping. On 9 January, police tracked the assailants to an industrial estate in
Dammartin-en-Goële
Dammartin-en-Goële ( or ) is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is around northeast of the centre of Paris.
Geography
It is well situated on a hill forming part of the plateau ...
, where they took a hostage. Another gunman shot a police officer on 8 January. He killed four more victims and
took hostages on January 9 at a
kosher supermarket near the
Porte de Vincennes
The Porte de Vincennes () is one of the city gates of Paris (France) situated in the Bel Air neighborhood of the 12th arrondissement.
Location
The Porte de Vincennes is located where the northeast corner of the 12th arrondissement meets the ...
. French armed forces and police conducted simultaneous raids in Dammartin and Porte de Vincennes, killing all three attackers.
After 12 January 2015 and for an indefinite period, as part of
Operation Sentinelle, nearly 10,500 military personnel were deployed in France to secure 830 sensitive places (school, churches, press organizations, etc ).
At the time, the attacks comprised the deadliest act of
terrorism in France
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 appr ...
since the
1961 Vitry-Le-François train bombing
The Vitry-Le-François train bombing of 18 June 1961 was a bomb attack on a Strasbourg–Paris train carried out by the Organisation armée secrète (OAS), a far-right paramilitary organization opposed to the independence of Algeria in the ...
by the
Organisation armée secrète
The ''Organisation Armée Secrète'' (OAS, "Secret Armed Organisation") was a far-right French dissident paramilitary organisation during the Algerian War. The OAS carried out terrorist attacks, including bombings and assassinations, in an atte ...
(OAS), which was working against Algerian independence.
[
] These fatalities were surpassed ten months later by the
November 2015 Paris attacks.
Background
In December 2014, three attacks occurred in a span of three days in France.
The first attack occurred in
Joué-lès-Tours
Joué-lès-Tours (, literally ''Joué near Tours'') is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France.
It is the largest suburb of the city of Tours, and is adjacent to it on the southwest.
Population
Toponymy
The name of Jou ...
, in which a knife-wielding man attacked a police station, injuring three officers before being killed.
The second attack occurred in
Dijon
Dijon (, , ) (dated)
* it, Digione
* la, Diviō or
* lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920.
The earlies ...
, in which a man used a vehicle to run over eleven pedestrians in several areas of the city before being arrested.
[
] The third attack occurred in
Nantes, in which a vehicular attack at a
Christmas market
A Christmas market, also known as ''Christkindlmarkt'' (literally: ''Christ Child Market'', but the term "Christkind" usually refers to an angel-like "spirit of Christmas" rather than literally the Christ Child), ''Christkindlesmarkt'', ''Chris ...
resulted in ten people being injured and one fatality. The driver was arrested after attempting suicide.
Although the French government concluded that the attacks were not related to each other, it heightened the nation's security and deployed 300 soldiers to patrol the nation's streets.
[
]
Attacks
''Charlie Hebdo'' shooting
The first and deadliest of the attacks occurred at 11:30
CET
CET or cet may refer to:
Places
* Cet, Albania
* Cet, standard astronomical abbreviation for the constellation Cetus
* Colchester Town railway station (National Rail code CET), in Colchester, England
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Comcast En ...
on January 7, 2015 at the offices of ''
Charlie Hebdo''. The Charlie Hebdo magazine began publishing in 1970 with the goal of satirizing religion, politics, and other topics. In 2006, Charlie Hebdo reprinted controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that originally appeared in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. French President Jacques Chirac criticized their decision to include the cartoons and called it "overt provocation." In 2011, the magazine's offices were destroyed by a gasoline bomb after it published a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed.
Two gunmen, later identified as Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, entered the building and fatally shot eight employees, two police officers, and two others, and injured eleven other people.
[
] The perpetrators fled the scene following the shooting. Despite police responding to the situation and arriving on scene as the gunmen were leaving, the two gunmen were able to escape by car. The gunmen's getaway car was found abandoned - after crashing into another vehicle about 2 miles north of where the shootings occurred. Investigators found Molotov cocktails and jihadist flags in the car.
The primary motive behind the shooting is said to be the ''Charlie Hebdo'' cartoons making fun of numerous Islamic leaders. The shooting received widespread condemnation internationally and a
National Day of Mourning
A national day of mourning is a day or days marked by mourning and memorial activities observed among the majority of a country's populace. They are designated by the national government. Such days include those marking the death or funeral of ...
was held in France on 8 January.
Fontenay-aux-Roses and Montrouge shootings
A few hours after the ''Charlie Hebdo'' attack, a 32-year-old man who was out jogging in
Fontenay-aux-Roses
Fontenay-aux-Roses () is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.
In 1880 a girls school École Normale Supérieure was opened in the town. It was one of the most prestigious of Paris and ...
was shot and wounded. The man suffered injuries to his arm and back and as of 11 January was in critical condition. Shell casings found at the scene were later linked to the weapon carried by
Amedy Coulibaly
Amedy Coulibaly (; 27 February 1982 – 9 January 2015) was a Malian-French man who was the prime suspect in the Montrouge shooting, in which municipal police officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe was shot and killed, and was the hostage-taker and gu ...
at the Hypercacher Kosher Supermarket hostage crisis on January 9. However, the jogger refuted Coulibaly’s involvement and recognized Amar Ramdani, a friend of Coulibaly, as the gunman.
On 8 January, Coulibaly shot and killed municipal police officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe at the junction of Avenue Pierre Brossolette and Avenue de la Paix in Montrouge (a suburb of Paris), and critically wounded a street sweeper.
As police continued their search for Charlie Hebdo suspects, they initially dismissed the idea that there could be a link between this shooting and the Charlie Hebdo killings, but later confirmed they were in fact connected.
Coulibaly reportedly was heard to declare allegiance to
ISIS
Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...
, a
Salafist
The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a reform branch movement within Sunni Islam that originated during the nineteenth century. The name refers to advocacy of a return to the traditions of the "pious predecessors" (), the first three generati ...
terrorist organization
A number of national governments and two international organizations have created lists of organizations that they designate as terrorist. The following list of designated terrorist groups lists groups designated as terrorist by current and fo ...
at war in the Middle East.
ISIS
Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...
, through its media outlet
al-Hayat Media Center
Al-Hayat Media Center is a media wing of the Islamic State. It was established in mid-2014 and targets international (non-Arabic) audiences as opposed to their other Arabic-focused media wings and produces material, mostly Nasheeds, in English, ...
claimed responsibility for Coulibaly in a
jihad nasheed video named "Ma vengeance" celebrating the posterior
November 2015 attacks.
Dammartin-en-Goële hostage crisis
On 9 January, the assailants of the ''Charlie Hebdo'' shooting, Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, went to the office of Création Tendance Découverte, a signage production company on an industrial estate in Dammartin-en-Goële. Inside the building were owner Michel Catalano and a male employee, 26-year-old graphics designer Lilian Lepère. During the siege, Catalano told Lepère to hide inside the refectory. Throughout the crisis, the perpetrators were unaware that Lepère was in the building. During the siege, a salesman named Didier went to the building on business, and Catalano left his office, where he had been hiding. Both were confronted by the perpetrators and asked to leave. Didier realized that they were terrorists and quickly alerted the authorities.
Catalano returned to the building and helped one of the perpetrators who had been injured in earlier gunfire. He was allowed to leave after an hour. After this, Lepère, who was hiding in a cardboard box, was able to alert authorities of the situation via text message.
The siege ended after nine hours at 16:30 after a combined force of French Armed Forces and police stormed the building and killed both Kouachi brothers, the assailants.
Hypercacher Kosher Supermarket siege
Also on 9 January, Amedy Coulibaly, armed with several assault weapons, entered a
Hypercacher kosher supermarket at
Porte de Vincennes
The Porte de Vincennes () is one of the city gates of Paris (France) situated in the Bel Air neighborhood of the 12th arrondissement.
Location
The Porte de Vincennes is located where the northeast corner of the 12th arrondissement meets the ...
in east Paris. Amedy Coulibaly killed four people and took several hostages.
[
] Coulibaly was reportedly in contact with the Kouachi brothers as the sieges progressed, and told police that he would kill hostages if the brothers were harmed proving further that these attacks were connected in some form.
When police stormed the grocery store, they gunned down Coulibaly. Fifteen hostages were rescued. Several people were wounded during the incident.
[
] Lassana Bathily, a Muslim shop assistant born in
Mali
Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mal ...
, was hailed as a hero in the crisis for risking his life to hide people from the gunman in a downstairs refrigerator room and assisting police after he escaped from the market.
Hayat Boumeddiene
Hayat Boumeddiene (born 26 June 1988) is currently being sought by French police as a suspected accomplice of her partner, Amedy Coulibaly, who was the main suspect for the Montrouge shooting, in which municipal police officer Clarissa Jean-Phi ...
, Coulibaly's partner in crime and wife, was suspected to have been present during the incident but it was later confirmed that she left France before any of the shootings occurred, traveling to Syria from Turkey. Developments on Boumeddiene's whereabouts ran dry until March 2019, when Dorothee Maquere - wife of
Fabien Clain
Fabien Clain (30 January 1978, Toulouse, France – 20 February 2019, Al-Baghuz Fawqani, Syria) was a purported veteran jihadist terrorist loyal to the Islamic State. He had French nationality and was of Réunionnais origin.
Personal backgro ...
- speculated that Boumeddiene had been killed in Syria late February during the
Battle of Baghuz Fawqani
The Battle of Baghuz Fawqani was an offensive by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), assisted by Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) airstrikes, artillery, and special forces personnel, that began on 9 February ...
.
However, in March 2020, a French jihadist woman told a judge that she met Boumeddiene in October 2019 at the
Al Howl camp; Boumeddiene was staying under a false identity and managed to escape. French intelligence services think that this piece of information is plausible and credible as it corroborates previous indications.
After 12 January 2015 and for an indefinite period, as part of
Operation Sentinelle, nearly 10,500 military personnel were deployed in France to secure 830 sensitive places (school, churches, press organizations, etc ). The severity of these terrorist attacks forced France to take immediate action to prevent any further related attacks occur.
At the time, the attacks comprised the deadliest act of
terrorism in France
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 appr ...
since the
1961 Vitry-Le-François train bombing
The Vitry-Le-François train bombing of 18 June 1961 was a bomb attack on a Strasbourg–Paris train carried out by the Organisation armée secrète (OAS), a far-right paramilitary organization opposed to the independence of Algeria in the ...
by the
Organisation armée secrète
The ''Organisation Armée Secrète'' (OAS, "Secret Armed Organisation") was a far-right French dissident paramilitary organisation during the Algerian War. The OAS carried out terrorist attacks, including bombings and assassinations, in an atte ...
(OAS), which was working against Algerian independence. These fatalities were surpassed ten months later by the
November 2015 Paris attacks.
Other incidents
Cyber attacks
French media reported that hackers breached the security of French municipality websites during the Île-de-France attacks, changing them to display
jihadist
Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...
propaganda. The French Defense Ministry and security bodies reported that about 19,000 French websites were targeted in an unprecedented wave of
denial-of-service attack
In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host conn ...
s following the publication of ''
Charlie Hebdo'' with a depiction of the sacred prophet
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...
on the cover. The websites of French businesses, religious groups, universities, and municipalities were also hacked and altered to display pro-Islamist messages.
Incidents at mosques
In the week after the shooting, the organisation "
L'Observatoire contre l'islamophobie du Conseil français du culte musulman (CFCM)" called for strengthening of the surveillance of mosques. The French interior department reported that 54 anti-Muslim incidents were recorded in France in the first week after the shootings; this compared to 110 complaints in the first nine months of 2014. The 2015 incidents included 21 reports of shootings and blank grenade throwing at Islamic buildings including mosques; and 33 cases of personal threats and insults.
After news of the January 8 attack was publicized, three blank grenades were thrown at a mosque in
Le Mans, west of Paris. A new bullet hole was found in its windows. In addition, a Muslim prayer hall in the
Port-la-Nouvelle
Port-la-Nouvelle (; oc, La Novèla) is a commune in the Aude department in southern France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions a ...
was the target of shooting, but no one was injured. An explosion took place at a restaurant affiliated with a mosque in
Villefranche-sur-Saone. No casualties were reported.
[
]
2020 trial
On December 16, 2020, a French court convicted 14 accomplices after the three attackers for crimes ranging from financing terrorism to membership of a criminal gang in relation to the attacks.
However, three were convicted in absentia, including Hayat Boumeddiene, the former partner of Coulibaly.
Boumeddiene would be convicted of financing terrorism and belonging to a criminal terrorist network, and received a sentence of 30 years in jail.
See also
*
2014 Tours police station stabbing
On 20 December 2014, a man in Joué-lès-Tours near the city of Tours in central France entered a police station and attacked officers with a knife, shouting "Allahu Akbar" and injuring three before he was shot and killed. The attack was categoris ...
*
2015 TV5Monde cyber-attack
*
List of Islamist terrorist attacks
The following is a list of Islamist terrorist attacks.
1940s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2001-2010 2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011-2020 2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
...
*
List of terrorist incidents in France
This is a list of terrorist attacks in France from 1800 to the present. Several 19th-century French rulers were targeted in unsuccessful assassination attempts which killed innocent bystanders.
Since December 1973, terrorist attacks have been tak ...
*
November 2015 Paris attacks
*
Terrorism in the European Union
history of terrorism in Europe. This has often been linked to nationalist and separatist movements (separating countries), while other acts have been related to politics (including anarchism, far-right and far-left extremism), religious extremis ...
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ile-de-France attacks
2015 in Paris
2015 attacks
Antisemitic murders in 21st-century France
Antisemitism in France
Crime in Île-de-France
GIGN missions
Islamic terrorist incidents in 2015
Islamic terrorism in Paris
January 2015 crimes in Europe
Massacres in France
Mass murder in 2015
Terrorist incidents in France in 2015
Terrorist incidents in Paris
Opération Sentinelle
Religious controversies in France
2015 mass shootings in Europe