Major terrorist attack in Paris, France. More then 100 dead.

French civilians being evacuated by emergency personnel. NBC/AFP. 

Six simultaneous terror attacks struck Paris, France, killing at least 120 people, with more casulaties expected. NBC News. More then 100 people were killed a rock concert being held at the Bataclan theater. Gunmen also attacked a restaurant nearby. Duel suicide bombings hit the Stade de France stadium, where the French President, Francois Hollande was watching the soccer match, killing 3 people. Paris is in lock down and military forces have been deployed to the city.  France has closed their borders and declared a state of emergency. Some of the attackers have been killed but France suspects that other terrorists are on the loose. The attacks come after the Charlie Hebdo attacks earlier this year and occurred in the same area. 

My Comment:

Here are some live blogs updating this story as it happens:

Yahoo live blog

CNN

Reuters

As for my reaction, I hate being right. I wrote a long time ago when the Charlie Hebdo attacks happened that attacks in that same style would be more and more common. I was right. Though these attacks involved suicide bombings as well, most of the damage was done by small groups of people using firearms to inflict most of their casualties. I said back then how hard it is to defend from these kinds of attacks and it seems clear that I was right. Though this attack was a bit more complicated then the Charlie Hebdo attacks, it followed the same basic pattern. These kind of attacks are very hard to defend against, and the fact that this was a major victory will inspire more attacks of this kind.  

The terrorists, most likely from ISIS, were fairly sophisticated in their tactics. They started with multiple attacks, including using suicide bombings and drive by shootings, to distract security forces. As those forces responded, they were all busy when the main attack came to the rock concert. Police and medics were all responding to the first attacks, so there was nobody left to respond to the attack on the theater. The terrorists were able to kill at least 100 people in the theater before the police showed up and presumably killed them. 

Footage from the Stadium. 

The only good news is that the suicide bombings failed at the Stade de France stadium. From the video above, it shows that the game wasn't even interrupted. For whatever reason, the attack was unable to damage or destroy the stadium. It is possible that the attack there was only for a distraction, but given the fact that Francois Holande was at the game, it is possible that this was an attempt to kill him. If true, then it is lucky that these bombings failed. 

What happens next? Well for now, France has to figure out if the gunmen and terrorists are all dead. This attack, with multiple attackers and bombers, means that the attack was fairly large in terms of organization. Not only is their the possibility of some of the gunmen surviving, they obviously had support. French officials are going to be looking for those gunmen as well as any bomb makers, command and control, or other support staff. At this point we don't know if this attack is even over. There may be more members of this cell and France is going to have to hunt them down. 

Later down the road, France is going to have to ask some serious questions about its internal security. They are going to have to figure out how these men got their weapons and figure out if they are home grown terrorists or foreigners. It's pretty clear that they were Islamic extremists, but it remains to be seen if they are French. They could be infiltrators, refugees, or home grown terrorists. France is also going to have to figure out how they are going to respond to these kind of attacks. I don't even know how you can respond to mass shootings like this, especially at this level of complexity. Any agency, even one as experienced and professional as the French, is going to have problems with six simultaneous attacks. The only thing I can think of is letting people carry concealed weapons, and that seems politically impossible in France and has problems of its own. 

The big fear is that this attack, even if it is over at this point, will inspire copycat attacks. We certainly saw that with the Charlie Hebdo attacks. Across Europe and especially in the United States and Canada, many, many attacks happened after Charlie Hebdo happened. This is not a question of if, it's a question of when. Expect more attacks by "lone wolves" in America and throughout the world. These attacks won't be on the same scale as the attacks in France, but they will still kill people.

As for US reactions, I think it's obvious that we will be stepping up our security for the time being. Though I think the chances of this kind of attack happening in this country, I do think the threat from copycat attacks is very high. What I do know is that we must stand by our French friends. Not only have they been our allies for pretty much all of our history, they are also a major partner in our war against ISIS. One hopes that we are able to help them in any way they require...