On the 13th of November 2015, when people were receding from the hectic week of daily life to a waited weekend, Paris was brought to a sudden shock with a series of well planned terrorist attacks in seven different locations in Paris and its northern suburb, Saint-Denis with suicide bombers and open firings at the innocent public. This tragedy started at around 21:20 CET and resulted in a loss of 130 lives with around 370 injuries. The attacks comprised of seven attackers from which three were suicide bombers and all seven of them died in the encounters.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attacks to which the French President François Hollande it was an act of war. He said that the ISIL planned the attack in Syria, organised in Belgium, and perpetrated with French complicity.
France was involved in airstrikes on various ISIL targets in Iraq and Syria for sometime and it is said that ISIL carried out the attack in retaliation to French involvement in the Syrian Civil War and Iraqi Civil War.
After the tragedy, a state of emergency was declared and temporary border checks were introduced. People and organisations expressed solidarity with France and many through social media.
In response to the attacks, on 15 November, France launched the biggest airstrike of Opération Chammal, its contribution to the anti-ISIL bombing campaign, striking ISIL targets in Al-Raqqah. On 18 November, the suspected lead operative of the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was killed in a police raid in Saint-Denis.
The November attacks were the deadliest on France since World War II and the deadliest in the European Union since the Madrid train bombings in 2004.
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