In the wake of the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday night (which killed 129 people and injured more than 350 people), France is bolstering both its security presence as well as its aerial attacks against ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). On Sunday, France attacked Raqqa, the ISIS stronghold in Syria, with ten jets dropping twenty guided bombs which targeted an ISIS command center, training camp, recruitment station and a munitions depot. In response, ISIS claimed that the targeted areas were devoid of any people and that no one was killed. French president Francois Hollande stated that he would write a bill that would extend the state of emergency for as long as three months while he suggested changes to the French constitution. Measures to be pursued in order for France to combat ISIS would include: no cuts to defense spending, 5,000 additional police added over a two-year period ,and quickening the process of deporting foreigners who are seen as posing a threat to national security.
In America, President Obama has been rejecting increasingly boisterous calls for American troops to be deployed to Syria, stating that “what I do not want to do is take actions either because it is going to work politically or somehow make America look tough, or make me look tough.” Numerous Republican presidential candidates have also voiced their opinions on what should be done, with Jeb Bush commenting on the Syrian refugee crisis: “Ultimately, the best way to deal with the refugee crisis is to create safe zones inside Syria so that people don’t risk their lives and you don’t have what will be a national security challenge both for our country and Europe.” Hillary Clinton said during the Democratic debates that “we need to have a resolve that will bring the world together to root out the kind of radical jihadist ideology that motivates organizations like ISIS, the barbaric, ruthless, violent jihadist, terrorist group.”
Meanwhile, French and Belgian officials have conducted over 160 raids ,and have arrested over twenty suspects with ties to terrorist organizations.
The alleged mastermind behind the Paris attacks has been confirmed as 27 year old Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian man who is reported to have mentioned attacking “a concert hall” and who was also in contact with at least one of the Paris attackers.
Mr. Abaaoud reportedly went to Syria over a year ago to join in jihad, and there is a video of him in pickup truck dragging mutilated bodies.
Francois Hollande has commented that the Paris attacks were “planned in Syria, prepared and organized in Belgium, (and) perpetrated on our soil with French complicity.”
Francois Hollande will be meeting with President Obama as well as Russian President ,Vladimir Putin, in the next few days, urging them to bring together their resources and strategies to combat ISIS. “We must combine our forces to achieve a result that is already too late in coming,” Hollande said.
