Why is France the target of choice for jihadists?
15 Jul 2016 15:51 GMT+02:00
Once again everyone has been left asking "why has France been targeted in an apparent terror attack, once again?" It's a complex question.
This report was written by AFP shortly after the Paris terror attacks. But it is a question everyone has been left asking once again after Thursday's mass killing in Nice.
The bloody attacks in Paris show that France is a target of choice for jihadists due to its air strikes against Isis in Iraq and Syria, as well as its controversial ban on the burqa face veil and attitude to Muslims, analysts say.
"If you can kill an American or European infidel, especially the dirty, nasty French ... then count on Allah, kill him any way you can," said an Isis spokesman, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, in 2014 as the US-led coalition launched its anti-Isis raids in Iraq.
Perhaps inspired by these words, jihadist attacks against France over the past year have been of unprecedented ferocity.
In January, 17 people were killed in Paris in a string of attacks against satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, a policewoman and a Jewish supermarket. And in June, a man beheaded his boss in southeast France.
Friday night, a series of attacks that for the first time brought suicide bombers to Paris, left at least 129 people dead and 350 injured.
France is "a target due to counter-terrorism activities in north and central Africa as well as the perceived mistreatment of and discrimination against the Muslim minority in France itself," said Matthew Henman, head of Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Centre in London.
French troops have fought Islamists in Mali and currently back African forces battling Nigeria's deadly Boko Haram Islamist group. French jets have staged 283 strikes against Isis targets in Iraq since September 2014.
In October 2015, France extended its air campaign to Syria where its fighter-bombers have carried out five strikes against Isis training camps and oil sites. As part of the drive to intensify the campaign, the French aircraft-carrier Charles-de-Gaulle is due in the area in December.
A witness to the Friday's attack on a crowded concert hall where more 82 people were killed, Pierre Janaszak, said he heard the attackers say: "'It's the fault of Hollande, it's the fault of your president, he should not have intervened in Syria'".