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Car Slams Into Soldiers in Paris Suburb, Injuring Six Car Slams Into Soldiers in Paris Suburb, Injuring Six
(about 7 hours later)
PARIS — The police were on the hunt Wednesday for a driver who plowed a dark BMW into soldiers in a Paris suburb, injuring six of them in what the town’s mayor called an act of “despicable aggression.” PARIS — A usually quiet Paris suburb became the scene of a terrorist attack early on Wednesday, when a driver plowed his dark BMW sedan into a military patrol as the soldiers were going to their vehicles for the day’s work, injuring six of them.
The car crashed into soldiers outside a building in Levallois-Perret, northwest of Paris, that they were using as barracks. It was the sixth attack on French military forces since 2015 and added to the long string of attacks on uniformed security forces, Gérard Collomb, France’s interior minister said in brief comments after the attack, underscoring the extent to which uniformed officers appear to be a focus for terrorists.
The soldiers were assigned to the 35th Infantry Regiment of Belfort, in eastern France, according to Defense Minister Florence Parly, who called the events a “cowardly act.” Three soldiers were wounded more seriously than the others, although no injuries appeared to be life-threatening. “We know this was a deliberate act,” said Mr. Collomb, describing how the car had approached the military patrol slowly, but then sped up, striking the soldiers.
Levallois-Perret, adjacent to the 17th Arrondissement of Paris, is home to France’s domestic intelligence agency, the D.G.S.I. The suburb’s mayor, Patrick Balkany, told the news channel BFM-TV that the attack was “odious” and “deliberate.” By early afternoon, after a setting up checkpoints on the main roads leading out of Paris and a chase on a highway leading north, police officers in the Pas-de-Calais department captured a man driving the car that was used in the attack, which had been identified through surveillance footage. Later, President Emmanuel Macron, in Twitter messages supporting the security forces, said that the arrested man was the “author of the attack.”
In the early afternoon, the police detained a man driving the vehicle used to wound the soldiers a few hours earlier, Agence France-Presse and other news agencies reported. Three of the soldiers were slightly injured, Defense Minister Florence Parly said, and the other three were in better condition than had initially been reported and their prognosis was good.
The driver of the car, who was heading north on one of the highways that leads toward the English Channel, was shot and wounded by the police as he tried to flee. He has been evacuated for medical care, A.F.P. reported, and his identity and motives have not been established. The Paris prosecutor’s office quickly opened a terrorism investigation. France has been on constant alert for more than two years and has had emergency security patrols in place for nearly as long.
The Paris prosecutor’s office opened a terrorism investigation. France has been on a constant alert for more than two years, and the attack is consistent with numerous past assaults on police officers and soldiers. In the context of the more than 20 terrorist attacks in France since January 2015, when Charlie Hebdo, a satirical newspaper, and a kosher grocery were attacked in Paris, Wednesday’s assault was a relatively minor episode — no one was killed, the injured are expected to recover fully and the police apprehended the main suspect.
About 7,000 soldiers are on patrol around the country as part of the response to a series of terrorist attacks in recent years: a shooting at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a siege at a kosher supermarket in January 2015; coordinated attacks in the Paris area in November 2015; and a truck attack on a Bastille Day celebration in Nice in July 2016. Those three attacks killed more than 230 people in total. But the attack, with its by now familiar pattern, was a reminder both of the extent to which France and specifically Paris remain targets for terrorists, but also of the fraught debate over how best to combat the threat. Does it make sense to deploy large numbers of heavily armed soldiers to patrol streets and high-profile places frequented by both tourists and the French? Or does their presence draw fire as much as it deters it?
On its Twitter account, the Paris police prefecture said that operations were continuing in the area and that the authorities were looking for the vehicle and the driver. “This is the paradox,” said Elie Tenenbaum, a research fellow at the French Institute for International Research. The initial deployment of about 10,000 soldiers across the country (7,000 soldiers are now deployed,), he said, had “before anything else a psychological and political goal.”
Mr. Balkany, the mayor of Levallois-Perret, told BFM-TV that the attack appeared to have intentionally targeted the soldiers as they were getting ready to start their patrol. “It was to to show military force and reassure the population,” he said. “It has finally reached its limits.”
“There was a BMW car that was pre-positioned in the alley and that charged into them as they were about to reach their vehicle,” Mr. Balkany said. Mr. Tenenbaum and other terrorism experts have argued that the money, time and resources being spent on the deployment of soldiers, known as Operation Sentinelle, could do more to prevent terrorist attacks if they were spent on intelligence and police work.
Police and military officers in France have been targeted with numbing regularity in recent months. “The terrorist threat in France today is a clandestine threat, and to counter a clandestine threat, there are no two ways about it: you need intelligence gathering, not firepower,” Mr. Tenenbaum said.
In June 2016, a police officer and his companion were killed at their home in Magnanville, a small town near Paris, by a man who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. The assailant was killed. Operation Sentinelle was created in response to the January 2015 attacks and has endured since, but it now seems to make targets of soldiers and the police and perhaps may even attract attacks.
Of the eight terrorist attacks or attempted attacks this year in France, all were in the Paris region and all but one both targeted uniformed security officers and appeared to be at least partly inspired by extremist Islamist ideology. The one case that was entirely unrelated to the others was a letter bomb that exploded at the offices of the International Monetary Fund.
Wednesday’s attack, which occurred at 8 a.m. in Levallois-Perret, a largely affluent suburb just north of Paris, took place as the soldiers were going from the building they were using as housing to their patrol vehicles. Because they are living in the community in a relatively unsecured barracks but are heavily armed and wearing uniforms, they were extremely visible and vulnerable.
Levallois-Perret is hardly the usual high-profile Parisian location preferred by terrorists. Unlike military patrols near the Louvre Museum or at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame or police officers on the Champs-Élysées, all of which were attacked earlier this year, Levallois-Perret is not well known other than for being the location of the domestic intelligence service known as the DGSI.
Over all, the attacks this year have been smaller in scale and have focused on security forces with numbing regularity.
In February, a man armed with two large knives and shouting “God is great” in Arabic lunged at a military patrol near an entrance to the Louvre and wounded a soldier. The assailant was shot by another soldier.In February, a man armed with two large knives and shouting “God is great” in Arabic lunged at a military patrol near an entrance to the Louvre and wounded a soldier. The assailant was shot by another soldier.
In March, a gunman was killed at Orly Airport, south of Paris, after attacking a soldier there.In March, a gunman was killed at Orly Airport, south of Paris, after attacking a soldier there.
In April, days before the first round of the French presidential election, a gunman shot at police officers on the Champs-Élysées, killing one. The gunman was killed by the police.In April, days before the first round of the French presidential election, a gunman shot at police officers on the Champs-Élysées, killing one. The gunman was killed by the police.
In June, a man was arrested after he used a hammer to attack police officers patrolling in front of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. He was shot and wounded. Later that month, an armed man was killed after he rammed his car into a police convoy on the Champs-Élysées.In June, a man was arrested after he used a hammer to attack police officers patrolling in front of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. He was shot and wounded. Later that month, an armed man was killed after he rammed his car into a police convoy on the Champs-Élysées.
And on Saturday, a teenager tried to attack with a knife security forces guarding the Eiffel Tower. He had recently been discharged from a hospital, and a psychiatric expert deemed him unfit to face prosecution, but a second opinion will be sought in the investigation. And on Saturday, a teenager with a knife tried to attack security forces guarding the Eiffel Tower. He had recently been discharged from a hospital, and a psychiatric expert deemed him unfit to face prosecution, but a second opinion will be sought in the investigation.
In an interview with the weekly Journal du Dimanche published on Sunday, the interior minister, Gérard Collomb, said that the threat level in France was still high and that the authorities had thwarted seven terrorist plots since the beginning of the year. Mr. Macron said last month that the government would present a proposal in the fall to “deeply revisit the organization of Sentinelle,” in order “to have better operational efficiency and to take into account the efficacy and evolution of the threat.”
Asked about French jihadists returning from Islamic State territory in Syria and Iraq, Mr. Collomb told the newspaper that the authorities were so far dealing with 217 adults and 54 minors who had returned to France, adding that “many of them are currently incarcerated.”
“But other threats exist,” Mr. Collomb said. “Individuals who could be remotely controlled from abroad, for instance by Al Qaeda. Or people without direct links to Syria, but who are subjected to propaganda that unfortunately is still very active. People who are fragile psychologically, and who can suddenly take action.”
The deployment of thousands of soldiers across the country has been criticized for pulling troops away from the French Army’s external and training operations, for being particularly tedious and tiring for soldiers, and for doing little to prevent terrorism — all while making patrols easy targets.
President Emmanuel Macron said last month that the government would present a proposal in the fall to “deeply revisit the organization of Sentinelle,” the operation that deploys thousands of soldiers across the country to protect and patrol sensitive sites, “to have better operational efficiency and to take into account the efficacy and evolution of the threat.”