November 2015 Paris attacks facts for kids
Quick facts for kids November 2015 Paris attacks |
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| Part of Islamic terrorism in Europe and the spillover of the Syrian Civil War | |
Public memorials for the victims, and police near the scenes of some of the attacks
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| Location | Paris and Saint-Denis, France |
| Date | 21:16, 13 November 2015 – 00:58, 14 November 2015 (CET) |
| Target |
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| Perpetrators | Islamic State (Brussels cell) |
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Number of participants
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10 (including Salah Abdeslam) |
| Motive | Islamic extremism, retaliation against French airstrikes on ISIL |
A series of coordinated Islamist terrorist attacks took place on Friday, 13 November 2015 in Paris, France, and the city's northern suburb, Saint-Denis.
The attackers killed 130 people, including 90 at the Bataclan theatre. Another 416 people were injured, almost 100 critically. Seven of the attackers were also killed. The attacks were the deadliest in the European Union since the Madrid train bombings of 2004. The attacks came one day after similar attacks in Beirut, Lebanon. France had been on high alert since the January 2015 attacks on Charlie Hebdo offices and a Jewish supermarket in Paris that killed 17 people.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attacks (as they had done with the Beirut attacks a day prior), saying that it was retaliation for French airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq. The president of France, François Hollande, said the attacks were an act of war by Islamic State. The attacks were planned in Syria and organised by a terrorist cell based in Belgium. Two of the Paris attackers were Iraqis, but most were born in France or Belgium, and had fought in Syria. Some of the attackers had returned to Europe among the flow of migrants and refugees from Syria.
In response to the attacks, a three-month state of emergency was declared across the country to help fight terrorism, which involved the banning of public demonstrations, and allowing the police to carry out searches without a warrant, put anyone under house arrest without trial, and block websites that encouraged acts of terrorism. On 15 November, France launched the biggest airstrike of Opération Chammal, its part in the bombing campaign against Islamic State. The authorities searched for surviving attackers and accomplices. On 18 November, the suspected lead operative of the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was killed in a police raid in Saint-Denis, along with two others.
See also
- List of Islamist terrorist attacks:
- 2016 Brussels bombings, another attack by the Brussels ISIL terror cell
- Manchester Arena bombing, another attack at a music event
- Crocus City Hall attack, a similar attack in a music event
- 2016 Nice truck attack
- 2018 Strasbourg attack
- 2015 in France
- History of Paris
- ISIL-related terror attacks in France
- List of hostage crises
- List of major terrorist incidents
- List of marauding terrorist incidents
- List of terrorist incidents in France
- List of terrorist incidents in November 2015
