On a Friday night, a soccer match pairing France and Germany went on as usual while explosions were heard outside Stade de France. The crowd assumed the noises were a part of the game, as celebration or otherwise.
This was far from incorrect.
While thousands of Paris citizens stood in the stands, according to CNN, the worst violence in France since World War II occurred. Terrorist attacks, for which ISIS took responsibility for, stunned the city and the world.
According to the president of France Francois Hollande, this was an "act of war... We will lead the fight, and we will be ruthless."
Before it was clear that the act was done by ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria), directly after the bloodshed on Friday night, Belgian authorities made many arrests and raids were conducted. A raid that rendered useful was one of a Volkswagen Polo rented by one of the terrorists. As of 10 PM Saturday night, 129 were killed and 352 injured. So far, there has been one American found dead in these 129, who was studying in Paris for a semester. This is one of the many devastating deaths that occurred this night at the hands of these terrorists.
The ISIS terrorists who committed this awful act were wearing explosive belts and armed with machine guns who were ordered to attack only specific areas in the French capital. Aside from the thousands who were at the stadium for the soccer game, there were many residents just spending an average Friday night in restaurants, bars, and the streets. Bataclan, a concert hall in Paris where most of the fatalities occurred, according to an updated article by CNN, was brutally shocked as the sounds they heard went from an American rock band to panicked screams of people just laying on the ground, where 80 people were killed.
Terrorist attacks on Thursday night, just one day before the horrific Paris attacks, showed Islamic attack in Lebanon that killed at least 41 people in the capital, Beirut, according to BBC. This was the deadliest bombing since the end of Lebanon's civil war in 1990. Because this attack targeted innocent civilians, including children and the elderly, Hezbollah (Party of God, political and military organization in Lebanon made up of Shia muslims) is declaring this attack as "a Satanic terrorist attacks." As a result of this, Hezbollah has warned a long war against its enemies.
Although these attacks have devastated us and left us globally vulnerable, this is a time to consider having a moment of silence for those that were victims of these terrible tragedies. I read earlier today that we shouldn't remember the terrorists that left more than 1,000 people dead seriously injured. We should remember the children, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends that were lost.
