foreignpolicy.com: France is closing its borders, Paris and its suburbs are in a state of emergency, and at least 60 are dead and many more injured after suicide bombers and gunmen carried out a sequence of strikes throughout the French capital.
Authorities warned that the death toll, which already makes Friday’s attacks the deadliest in recent French history, was certain to rise, potentially significantly.
Initial reports from French media say that at least 15 people attending a show at the Bataclan theater have been killed and at least 60 are being held hostage there. American rock band Eagles of Death Metal was scheduled to play there Friday.
Separately, at least two explosions — which may have been suicide bombings — were heard outside of the Stade de France, where French President François Hollande was reportedly attending a soccer game.
At least one gunman wielding an AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifle opened fire and killed 11 at a crowded restaurant in the 11th arrondissement. The precise locations of the other targets weren’t immediately known.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the coordinated terror attacks, though self-proclaimed supporters of the Islamic State took to Twitter and Facebook to celebrate the strike.
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When French President Francois Hollande addressed reporters from Paris Friday, he said that the border closures, which are unprecedented due to Europe’s open border policies, were necessary to prevent any further attacks. “We have to assure ourselves that no one can enter to commit any act, whatever that may be,” he said.
U.S. President Barack Obama did not hesitate to label the attacks as terrorism but told reporters at the White House that because the acts of terrorism were ongoing, he was not willing to speculate as to who is responsible.
“We will do whatever it takes to work with the French people to bring these terrorists to justice and go after any terrorist networks that go after our people,” he said.
This is the successful first terrorist attack in Paris since a three-day ordeal last January when gunmen Chérif and Saïd Kouachi stormed satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo’s offices in January, killing 11. Two days later, gunman Amedy Coulibaly killed four after storming a kosher grocery store in Paris.
The Kouachi brothers, who were later shot dead by police, had pledged allegiance to al Qaeda in Yemen. Coulibaly, who was also shot and killed by police, claimed he coordinated with them, but pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
Friday evening’s attacks, which appear to be coordinated, come soon after French authorities claimed they thwarted a separate attack at a naval base in the country’s south.
The naval base was home to the Charles de Gaulle, the aircraft carrier that has been deployed to the Persian Gulf to support France’s bombing campaign against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
It also comes amid new evidence suggesting that militants tied to the Islamic State — once thought to be focused mainly on controlling their self-declared caliphate — were now crossing into other countries to carry out terrorist strikes.
U.S. authorities believe ISIS was responsible for the downing of a Russian airliner over the Sinai peninsula, killing all 224 people aboard. Spanish authorities said earlier this month they successfully dismantled an Islamic State cell that was plotting an attack in Madrid. Three Moroccan men were arrested in the raid.
Rep. Adam Schiff, ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a statement Friday that “many hundreds of French citizens have traveled to Syria and Iraq, and the risk from those who return is well known and severe.”
“While we await a determination of the identity of those responsible and their motivation, given the disturbing similarities to other attacks, this clearly coordinated series of violent acts bears all the hallmarks of international terrorism,” he said.
In September, France began anti-ISIS airstrikes in Syria, striking an oil supply center and training camps for foreign jihadists suspected of preparing to conduct attacks in France. An estimated 1,200 French citizens are believed to have gone to fight in Iraq and Syria, according to the U.K.-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, and 250 have returned,according to the French Interior Ministry.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told reporters earlier this month that French authorities have made 370 arrests to foil terrorist attacks, without specifying over what time period.
Friday’s attacks were a grim reminder of a close call in August, when three American friends tackled and disarmed a Moroccan gunman carrying a Kalashnikov on a crowded train headed from Amsterdam to Paris.
