National News 

Terror in Paris: ISIS claims responsiblity

Baltimore Post-Examiner Staff

More than 130 are feared dead in Paris after Islamic State, also known as ISIS, launched a series of terrorist acts that paralyzed the city Friday evening.

The terror group that has been recruiting around the globe — including in the United States — and training its suicidal soldiers in Syria took responsibility for one of the bloodiest days in France’s history.

Official believe three teams of Islamic State attackers  carried out the terrorist assault, including a gunman who was found with a Syrian passport.

“It is an act of war that was committed by a terrorist army, a jihadist army, Daesh, against France,” France President François Hollande told the world from the Élysée Palace, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. “It is an act of war that was prepared, organized and planned from abroad, with complicity from the inside, which the investigation will help establish..We will lead the fight, and we will be ruthless.”

So far at least 352 others are injured with 99 in critical condition, officials say. One American is among the 129 dead. Authorities identified the victim as Nohemi Gonzalez, 23, of El Monte, California, a junior studying design in Paris for a semester while enrolled at California State University, Long Beach, CNN reported. Officials expect more Americans could be among the dead and injured.

The terrorist used AK-47 and wore suicide vests.  It began at 9:20 p.m. when a terrorist detonated a bomb outside the gates of the soccer stadium on the northern outskirts of Paris. In a separate incident but acting in unions with the bomber, police stormed a concert venue featuring Eagles of Death Metal, shortly after midnight and killed one terrorist while the other two detonated suicide vests, but not before killing and wounding several concert goers by firing several rounds from an AK-47.  In the concert hall, 89 victims were pronounced dead. The terrorists also fired into cafes and popular bars, killing dozens of patrons. Officials said there were six separate incidents. Seven terrorists were killed in the attack.

Investigators are still looking for others who may be connected and Belgian authorities made a number of arrests, CNN reported.

Islamic State took credit for the bloodshed. They released the following statement:

“In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Beneficent

Allah (ta’ala) said, They thought that their fortresses would protect them from Allah but Allah came upon them from where they had not expected, and He cast terror into their hearts so they destroyed their houses by their own hands and the hands of the believers. So take warning, O people of vision [Al-Hashr:2].

In a blessed battle whose causes of success were enabled by Allah, a group of believers from the soldiers of the Caliphate (may Allah strengthen and support it) set out targeting the capital of prostitution and vice, the lead carrier of the cross in Europe — Paris. This group of believers were youth who divorced the worldly life and advanced towards their enemy hoping to be killed for Allah’s sake, doing so in support of His religion, His Prophet (blessing and peace be upon him), and His allies. They did so in spite of His enemies. Thus, they were truthful with Allah — we consider them so — and Allah granted victory upon their hands and cast terror into the hearts of the crusaders in their very own homeland.

And so eight brothers equipped with explosive belts and assault rifles attacked precisely chosen targets in the center of the capital of France. These targets included the Stade de France stadium during a soccer match — between the teams of Germany and France, both of which are crusader nations — attended by the imbecile of France (Francois Hollande). The targets included the Bataclan theatre for exhibitions, where hundreds of pagans gathered for a concert of prostitution and vice. There were also simultaneous attacks on other targets in the tenth, eleventh, and eighteenth districts, and elsewhere. Paris was thereby shaken beneath the crusaders’ feet, who were constricted by its streets. The result of the attacks was the deaths of no less than two hundred crusaders and the wounding of even more. All praise, grace, and favor belong to Allah.

Allah blessed our brothers and granted them what they desired. They detonated their explosive belts in the masses of the disbelievers after finishing all their ammunition. We ask Allah to accept them amongst the martyrs and to allow us to follow them.

Let France and all nations following its path know that they will continue to be at the top of the target list for the Islamic State and that the scent of death will not leave their nostrils as long as they partake in the crusader campaign, as long as they dare to curse our Prophet (blessings and peace be upon him), and as long as they boast about their war against Islam in France and their strikes against Muslims in the lands of the Caliphate with their jets, which were of no avail to them in the filthy streets and alleys of Paris. Indeed, this is just the beginning. It is also a warning for any who wish to take heed.

Allah is the greatest.

(And to Allah belongs all honor, and to His Messenger, and to the believers, but the hypocrites do not know) [Al-Munafiqun: 8].”

Pope Francis on Saturday morning called the terrorist attacks on Paris part of the “piecemeal Third World War.”

The Vatican issued this statement Friday:
“Here in the Vatican we are following the terrible news from Paris.
“We are shocked by this new manifestation of maddening, terrorist violence and hatred which we condemn in the most radical way together with the Pope and all those who love peace.
“We pray for the victims and the wounded, and for all the French people.
“This is an attack on peace for all humanity, and it requires a decisive, supportive response on the part of all of us as we counter the spread the homicidal hatred in all of its forms.”

In a telephone interview to Italian television channel TV2000, the Pope said:

“I am close to the people of France, to the families of the victims, and I am praying for all of them. I am moved and I am saddened. I do not understand, these things hard to understand…There is no religious or human justification for it.”