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Terrorism in France

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Terrorism in France
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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.

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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.[20] Since 1970, France experienced 2,654 terrorist incidents, resulting in 1,247 terrorist-related deaths and 2,559 injuries, the second highest in western Europe after the United Kingdom.[21][22] France remains the country most affected by Islamist terrorism within Europe, with recent data showcasing a total of 82 Islamist attacks and 332 deaths from 1979 to 2021.[23]

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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.
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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.
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History

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Islamic terrorism

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 StrasbourgParis train which killed 28 people.[24]

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.[25] 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.[26]

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."[27]

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.[28][29]

In the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo shooting, six mosques and a restaurant were attacked in acts deemed as right-wing terrorism by authorities.[30] The acts included grenade throwing, shooting, and use of an improvised explosive device.
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List of significant terrorist incidents inside France

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List of international terrorist incidents with significant French casualties

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Foiled attacks

In 2015, a 25-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.[110] 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.[111]

Kriket was convicted in absentia by a Belgian court in a 2015 case involving Abdelhamid Abaaoud.[112]

Murder of Sarah Halimi

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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.[113] 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 from 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".[113] 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.[114][113] In September, 2017, the prosecutor officially characterized the murder as an "antisemitic" hate crime.[115]

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][113][116]

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See also

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References

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