French police shoot man after he stabs 5 people, killing one. ISIS takes responsibility.

French Police stand guard near the scene of the attack. USA Today/AFP

French police have shot and killed a man after he stabbed five people, killing one. USA Today. ISIS has taken credit for the attack and called the man one of their "soldiers". The man shouted "Allah Akbar", a common war cry for Muslims. The attack occurred in Paris's opera district which is crowded with bars and restaurants and is popular with tourists. France has suffered several major terrorist attacks and is under high alert for follow up attacks. 

VIDEO: People running, body lying on floor after #Paris stabbing

The attacker stabbed and killed at least one person and injured four others before being shot dead by police, French authorities said. pic.twitter.com/UrcewxQkCw

— The Voice of America (@VOANews) May 12, 2018

My Comment:
Another terror attack hits France, which has already suffered so many attacks recently. This one wasn't as bad as it could be, the cops shot the attacker right away. But still, one innocent person died and four more were injured, two of them seriously.

My guess is that this was a "lone wolf" attacker. That doesn't mean he didn't have links to ISIS. Indeed, given how quickly ISIS took credit for this attack, I bet he had some contact with ISIS. Those links were probably online only, because if core ISIS was helping with this attack he probably would have had more than just a knife. Despite France's draconian gun control, core ISIS had no trouble getting fully automatic Kalashnikovs or bombs. Since he was only armed with a knife, my guess is that he planned and carried out this attack by himself, and only gave ISIS a heads up as to what he was doing. Either that or ISIS just isn't in position to arm their attackers anymore.

The choice of target is important as well. The opera district is a tourist trap place and also is a place where locals go for entertainment and shopping. The attacker knew that this area was a good place to attack. There would be a lot of people close together and some of them might be intoxicated.

The obvious downside is that there were a lot of soldiers and cops running around in Paris right now, and I think that is a major reason why this attack only killed one. It's pretty clear that the attacker chose his target for maximum publicity, not maximum casualties. Paris is more well defended than most cities, even if citizens can't own guns for protection. I don't want to give the terrorists any ideas but it's clear that if this attacker had been a bit smarter he could have killed way more people...

ISIS has not been in the headlines very much lately. It should be very obvious why. They have lost most of their territory in Syria and Iraq and their other outposts, like Libya and Egypt, have been greatly reduced. Many of their soldiers and terrorists are dead or captured and are no longer a threat.

ISIS has also run out of money. Much of their millions of dollars in cash collected from looting, taxation and selling oil was destroyed. And many of the people that could have paid terrorists and bought them weapons are dead. Though ISIS goes cheap when it comes to terrorism, it still costs money to attack. That's why there has been a shift from the major plots like the Paris attacks and the Brussels bombings to these minor lone wolf attacks.

The attacks will probably continue though. ISIS may be largely defeated as a terrorist organization, but their actions will continue to inspire more attacks in the future. ISIS isn't just a terror group, it's a belief system, and that belief system won't just go away...