On Tuesday, a man attacked a police officer outside of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. The man reportedly swung a hammer at the officer, and also had knives on him. Another quick-thinking officer shot him in the chest and the first officer was not seriously injured. French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb later said the man shouted, “This is for Syria” as he attacked.

The man was taken to the hospital and the situation was quickly contained, but as it happened, many feared a larger terrorist attack was taking place, only days after the attack in London. People on social media said they were escorted inside the cathedral and asked to put their arms in the air. Nancy Soderberg, a former White House Deputy National Security Adviser under President Clinton, was among those in the cathedral.

Locked inside #notre dame cathedral in #paris while police investigate attack outside against a policeman. All calm pic.twitter.com/Z4B8wUzPTV

— Nancy Soderberg (@nancysoderberg) June 6, 2017

France has been in a state of emergency ever since the terror attacks that shook Paris in November 2015, and Tuesday’s incident caused panic on the streets of central Paris. However, thanks to the high-security alert, a lot of officers were patrolling the streets and the attacker was rendered harmless quickly. The 900 people inside the cathedral reportedly remained calm until they were allowed to exit again.

Notre-Dame: de nombreux effectifs se dirigent vers le lieu pic.twitter.com/FWWAGJzoW0

— David Perrotin (@davidperrotin) June 6, 2017

Authorities have not released the name of the suspect but said he was carrying identification that showed he is an Algerian student. His motives remain unclear but he seemed to be acting by himself and it didn’t seem like a very well planned attack. “One sees that we have gone from a very sophisticated terrorism to a terrorism where, in the end, any tool can be used to carry out attacks,” said Collomb, the Interior Minister. Prosecutors launched an anti-terrorism investigation into the incident.

France has seen several separate attacks recently, many of which targeted police officers or soldiers. A man stabbed two police officers, a couple, to death last June; a month later, another man drove a truck into a crowd in Nice killing more than 80 people; in March, a man attacked a soldier at the Orly airport; and a gunman fired shots at a police van on the Champs-Élysées in April.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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A shooting at a mosque in Quebec City, Canada on Sunday evening left six people dead, and over a dozen people injured; at least five are in critical condition. Witnesses said two gunmen, both dressed in black, entered the mosque and began firing indiscriminately into the crowd of worshippers. Early Monday morning, police said they took two men into custody, but a few hours later, said one of the suspects was a witness, and the other is now considered the sole gunman. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the incident a “terrorist attack on Muslims” in a statement on Monday. “It is heart-wrenching to see such senseless violence. Diversity is our strength, and religious tolerance is a value that we, as Canadians, hold dear,” he said. “Muslim-Canadians are an important part of our national fabric, and these senseless acts have no place in our communities, cities and country.”

Tonight, Canadians grieve for those killed in a cowardly attack on a mosque in Quebec City. My thoughts are with victims & their families.

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) January 30, 2017

Soon after the two alleged attackers were arrested on Monday morning, their identities were released: Alexandre Bissonnette and Mohamed Khadir. According to a witness, the two men entered the mosque at the Quebec Islamic Cultural Center, and yelled “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great” in Arabic, as bullets whizzed over the heads of worshippers. But by the afternoon, police confirmed that only one of the men is being considered a perpetrater of the attack; the other was a witness. The identity of the attacker has not been officially revealed by the police.

“Please wait for the preliminary result before spreading rumors. The situation is very critical, but inshallah, we’re ready to endure it,” said a statement on the mosque’s Facebook page. “All our thoughts are with the children, whom we must tell about the death of their fathers,” another message said. “May Allah give them patience and endurance.”

This is not the first time this mosque was targeted. Last summer, a bloody pig’s head wrapped in cellophane was left at the front door of the mosque, along with a note that said “Bonne appétit.” In Islam, the consumption of pork is forbidden. South of the Canadian border, in America, protests raged in cities like New York, Washington D.C., and Boston over President Donald Trump’s executive order banning refugees from seven predominately Muslim countries.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the police department will bolster security at the city’s mosques. “Our prayers tonight are with the people of Quebec City as they deal with a terrible attack on a mosque,” he said in a tweet. In another, he wrote: “To my fellow New Yorkers who are Muslim: New York City will protect you. The NYPD will protect you. We will fight all hatred and bias.”

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Hashtag of the day: #DeleteUber was trending over the weekend as the news was dominated by chaos and confusion over the Trump Administration travel ban. If you’re wondering what that hashtag stands for, check this out. Then read on for the latest rants.

Welcome to RantCrush Top 5, where we take you through today’s top five controversial stories in the world of law and policy. Who’s ranting and raving right now? Check it out below:

Trump’s Travel Ban Causes Chaos and Protests

On Friday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order, banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. The order came abruptly and caused immense chaos at airports around the country, as people arriving from the affected countries were detained. Serious protests erupted, mainly at airports, and the move has been sharply condemned by, well, most people internationally.

It will probably have serious consequences in many ways. American academic institutions, hospitals, and businesses rely on experts and professionals from other countries. Iraq has already said it will retaliate. And an online petition in the U.K., aiming to keep Trump from making a state visit, quickly got over a million signatures.

IMAGE: Protests at airports across the United States pic.twitter.com/7OEqC9HtaT

— The Int’l Spectator (@spectatorindex) January 29, 2017

Initially, the ban also applied to green card holders and people with dual citizenship. Stories about students being stranded after a vacation or people unable to get home flooded the media over the weekend. An Iraqi man who worked as a translator for the U.S. military for a decade was detained for 18 hours at JFK Airport in New York.

As of now, it appears that no one is being detained or held at an airport anymore and there have been exemptions for 392 green card holders who have been allowed into the country. Fifteen attorneys general have issued a statement condemning Trump’s actions, calling it an “unconstitutional, un-American and unlawful Executive Order.” There is still confusion over what the order will actually mean, but the courts, big companies like Google and Facebook, celebrities, and ordinary citizens are all fighting back.

The synagogue where President Trump’s grandchild goes to preschool has condemned his travel ban https://t.co/jpunSV0ReA pic.twitter.com/0GbC3AM3ZG

— CNN International (@cnni) January 30, 2017

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Gun-toting militants strapped with suicide vests stormed a police training facility in Pakistan in the late evening hours on Monday, killing at least 61 people, and wounding at least 123 more. Cadets at the scene said the militants’ attack began at around 11:30 p.m., as most of the cadets were asleep. The siege lasted four hours, ending only after one militant was gunned down, and two others blew themselves up.

Most of those killed in Monday’s attack were police cadets in training. Some army personnel were killed while responding to the attack and in the ensuing gunfight with the militants. Witnesses said many cadets woke up as the attack began. Unarmed, they ran for their lives and leaped off the roof of the facility, which sent some to hospitals for treatment. “We were sleeping when terrorists attacked the center,” Asif Hussain, a cadet who was in the academy’s barracks at the time, told CNN.

Claims of responsibility for the attack have been coming from all directions, with the Islamic State as the most recent and most prominent claimant. On its official media website, Aamaq, ISIS said its soldiers carried out the bloody assault and posted the pictures of the three militants who it said were responsible for the attack. Pakistani officials could not confirm ISIS’ claim, nor the claims of any group, including a faction of the Pakistani Taliban knows as the Hakimullah group.

#PAKISTAN#IslamicState Claims Responsibility For Suicide Bombings On Police Academy In #Quetta, Releases Bombers Picture. #TerrorMonitor pic.twitter.com/LEmGTmrPOn

— Terrormonitor.org (@Terror_Monitor) October 25, 2016

The city of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province in southwest Pakistan, is no stranger to terrorist attacks. In August, at least 74 people were blown to bits in one of the deadliest attacks in Pakistan’s 69-year history. A Sunni militant group that targets Shiites killed over 160 people in a series of bombings in Baluchistan in 2013.

Before ISIS and Hakimullah claimed responsibility, the head of the Pakistani paramilitary forces blamed the Sunni militant group that carried out the 2013 bombings for Monday’s attack. That group, Lashker-e-Jhangvi Al-Almi, is based in neighboring Afghanistan. A spokesman for Afghanistan’s president dismissed those claims.

Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan expressed resolve in the face of terror: “This war isn’t over,” he said. “The enemy is weakened, but not eliminated.”

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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When a 22-year-old Syrian man at a train station in Leipzig, Germany posted a message on a social media site asking for a place to crash, two fellow Syrian refugees scooped him up and brought him to a third friend’s apartment. The man, Jaber Albakr, was on the lam after police raided his apartment, suspecting him of plotting a terrorist attack.

As Albakr slept on Sunday night, the three Syrian friends, realizing that he was the fugitive who had evaded the police, tied him up with electrical cords, and alerted the authorities. They arrested him Monday morning, and now, the three Syrians who tied him up are being hailed as “heroes.”

Anti-migrant sentiment has gripped Germany like it has the rest of Europe. Political groups running on nationalist, insular, platforms have sprung up from London to Leipzig. But on Tuesday, after three Syrian asylum seekers thwarted a fellow Syrian immigrant (who was granted asylum as one of the 890,000 migrants allowed into Germany last year), it was those least trusted by some Germans who perhaps saved the lives of many.

Leipzig is the largest city in the eastern state of Saxony, the base of a prominent anti-immigrant group, Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West (PEGIDA). Messages from groups like PEGIDA were overshadowed on Tuesday by the heroism of Syrian refugees. Leipzig Mayor Burkhard Jung called what the Syrians did a “very courageous act.” In the German newspaper Bild, one of the Syrian saviors voiced his appreciation for Germany: “I am so grateful to Germany for taking us in. We could not allow him to do something to Germans.”

The identities of the Syrian friends have not been released by authorities. Investigators in the case said Albakr seemed to be targeting a Berlin airport. They found over three pounds of explosives in his home, as well as evidence of ties to the Islamic State.

Franz Josef Wagner, a columnist for Bild, heralded the Syrians’ actions in an op-ed published on Tuesday. He began his piece with “Dear Heroes” and noted that they may come from a different culture, “But beyond language and tradition, you know what good and bad are. That makes you friends.”

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Syrian Refugees Deemed ‘Heroes’ After Thwarting Leipzig Terror Suspect appeared first on Law Street.

On Saturday, two bombs were detonated within 80 miles of each other: a pipe bomb exploded at a charity race in Seaside Park, New Jersey Saturday morning; later that night a homemade bomb packed into a pressure cooker detonated on 23rd Street in Manhattan, injuring 29 people. Nobody was hurt in New Jersey, and all 29 wounded individuals from the explosion in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan have been released from the hospital. The FBI said the attacks appear connected, and a prime suspect, Ahmad Khan Rahami of Elizabeth, New Jersey, was arrested and is in police custody after a shootout in Linden, New Jersey.

What do we Know So far?

In Seaside Park, a charity 5K–intended to raise funds for marines and sailors–was canceled because of a pipe bomb that exploded in the area Saturday morning. The bomb detonated in a garbage can near the starting line, but because the race was delayed, the area was empty when the bomb went off. Only one of three pipe bombs detonated, investigators said.

Later that evening, roughly 80 miles north of Seaside Park, near Manhattan’s westernmost edge, a homemade explosive went off. Blocks away, a second, undetonated device was found. The FBI said the devices appear to reflect advanced bomb-making techniques. On Sunday, a backpack full of five explosives was found at a train station in New Jersey. It is unclear if the backpack is connected to Saturday’s bombings.

The Prime Suspect

Just before noon on Monday, Ahmad Khan Rahami was arrested and captured by police in Linden, New Jersey after a shootout with police. A law enforcement official told the Associated Press that two officers were shot. Rahami is the prime suspect in the attacks in New Jersey and Manhattan.

A naturalized U.S. citizen born in Afghanistan, Rahami, 28, lives in Elizabeth, New Jersey. As of Monday afternoon, the FBI is combing his house for clues of a motive or any evidence directly linking him to the bombings.

Ahmad Khan Rahami, suspect in NY & NJ bombings, seen being loaded into an ambulance https://t.co/xQKQoLv7XQ https://t.co/MvXSlYgc6T

— CNN (@CNN) September 19, 2016

Rahami’s parents own First American Fried Chicken in Elizabeth, a restaurant that has drawn ire from some local residents because of its late-night, rowdy crowds. The Rahamis had previously refused to comply with city officials who ordered the restaurant to close at 10 PM.. Eventually, after confrontations with police officers and a lawsuit from Ahmad’s father, the restaurant and the city compromised: First American Fried Chicken remained opened, but had to close at 1 AM.

The family lives above the restaurant, and the FBI is searching their home for clues as of Monday afternoon.

Was this Terrorism?

When news of the explosion in New York City began trickling in on Saturday evening, Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo instantly denied any links to terrorism. The events surrounding the attacks were murky at the time, but it was still unusual for two prominent public figures to take such a definitive stance immediately following an attack.

On Monday morning, Cuomo shifted his stance: “I believe we will be targeting an individual, a person of interest, and it may very well turn out that there was a foreign connection to this incident,” Cuomo said in an interview with CBS. “Do I believe it’s possible you’re going to find one individual or one group behind all of these bombings? I think that’s a possibility.”

A few hours later, Rahami was captured by police, and as they search his house for clues and question him directly, answers regarding his motives or ties to international terrorist groups are sure to surface. De Blasio continued his measured approach: “To understand there were any specific motivations, political motivations, any connection to an organization — that’s what we don’t know,” he said.

November’s presidential hopefuls–Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton–took slightly different tacks in addressing the attacks. Trump released a flurry of tweets, offering his “warmest regards” to the families and victims of the attacks. Clinton released an official statement on her campaign website, appearing more forthcoming than de Blasio, a Clinton supporter, by labeling Saturday’s happenings as “apparent terrorist attacks.” Her statement said: “Americans have faced threats before, and our resilience in the face of them only makes us stronger. I am confident we will once again choose resolve over fear.”

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post What You Need to Know About Saturday’s Bombings in NYC and NJ appeared first on Law Street.

Nearly 15 years ago, after hijacked airplanes took down the World Trade Center buildings, punctured a hole in the Pentagon, and crash-landed on an airstrip in Pennsylvania, lawmakers stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol building and sang “God Bless America.” On Friday, lawmakers gathered once more to sing Irving Berlin’s 1918 tune, and to commemorate the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks with a moment of silence. Soon after, the House passed a bill that would allow families of 9/11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia, which some believe played a role in the trio of attacks that took nearly 3,000 American lives.

Sponsored and supported by a bi-partisan collection of lawmakers, the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act has now passed both the Senate–which it did in May–and the House. It cleared both chambers by a unanimous voice vote. The bill’s text reads:

The purpose of this Act is to provide civil litigants with the broadest possible basis, consistent with the Constitution of the United States, to seek relief against persons, entities, and foreign countries, wherever acting and wherever they may be found, that have provided material support, directly or indirectly, to foreign organizations or persons that engage in terrorist activities against the United States.

Though it successfully passed through the House and the Senate, an accomplishment given the polarized climate of American politics, the bill is not guaranteed to be signed into law. Since its inception, President Obama has said he would veto the legislation.

“This legislation would change long-standing, international law regarding sovereign immunity,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in May, after the bill cleared the Senate. “And the president of the United States continues to harbor serious concerns that this legislation would make the United States vulnerable in other court systems around the world.” If he chooses to veto the bill, it would be the first override of a bill during his presidency.

Saudi Arabia has long been suspected of playing some sort of role in the 9/11 attacks–15 of the 19 perpetrators were Saudi citizens. With the release of 28 previously disclosed pages on its involvement in July, efforts to hold them accountable have heightened.

White House official’s concern, they say, is that passing the bill could set a dangerous precedent which foreign governments could use to sue U.S. citizens or government. In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday, Terry Strada, whose husband was killed in the New York attack, said that she and other victims’ families simply are looking for accountability.

“We’re just going to hold people accountable for terrorism acts, for funding and financing terrorist acts on United States soil that kills American citizens.” she said. “As long as we’re not funding terrorist groups, and we’re not causing terrorist attacks in other countries, we don’t have anything to worry about.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Turkey backtracked on Monday after suggesting a child between 12 and 14 years old carried out the suicide bombing that killed 54 people at a wedding on Saturday. “A clue has not yet been found concerning the perpetrator,” said Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, calling President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s previous statement a “guess” based on witness accounts. Another 70 wedding guests were wounded, including the groom, after explosions rocked the wedding in the southeastern city of Gaziantep. Nearly half of the dead were under 14 years old.

In his remarks on Sunday, Erdogan said early signs point to the Islamic State, or ISIS, as responsible for the attack. ISIS has sent children to carry out its murderous missions in the past. But the prime minister on Monday clarified that the identity of the perpetrator is foggy, saying officials are unsure at this point if it was a “child or a grown-up” who carried out the attack.

The wedding was for a member of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP). Turkey’s Kurds–a stateless ethnic group with distinct populations in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey–act as a potent force in the fight against ISIS. Yet they are also adversaries of Erdogan’s government, which considers the PKK–the Kurdish governing body–a terrorist organization. Gaziantep is roughly 50 kilometers (about 30 miles) from the Syrian border, thought to be a convening site for ISIS fighters in Turkey. On Monday, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu voiced his country’s need to rid itself of any ISIS influence.

Turkey is rocked by a string of attacks in the past year as turmoil deepens. Here is a helpful map. pic.twitter.com/jasXik0gju

— Mahir Zeynalov (@MahirZeynalov) August 22, 2016

“Our border has to be completely cleansed of Daesh [the Arabic name for ISIS]. It’s natural for us to give whatever kind of support is necessary,” he said. Some experts see Saturday’s attack as having a duel-motivation: retaliation for recent battlefield successes by Syrian Kurds, and an attempt to fan the flames of ethnic tension already rife in a country still recovering from a failed coup attempt last month.

A statement from the White House National Security Council on Sunday said: “The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms yesterday’s terrorist attack.” It also said Vice President Joe Biden will be traveling to Ankara on Wednesday to discuss strategies regarding ISIS.

As funerals for those killed began on Sunday, so did reminders of how divided and tense Turkey is at the moment. At one funeral, mourners were mostly Kurdish. When Turkish officials came bearing Turkish flags, the Kurdish mourners grew angry and began hurling rocks at the officials.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Was Saturday’s Wedding Bombing in Turkey Carried Out by a Child? appeared first on Law Street.

Thursday night in Nice, France, 84 people went to go celebrate Bastille Day and watch the fireworks, but their night ended in tragic death, as the country experienced its third major terror attack in 19 months. More than 200 others were injured–some critically–as a result of Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, 31, the man who is believed to be responsible for driving a large commercial truck over a mile-long stretch along a crowded boulevard, brutally mowing down those in his path.

French officers finally shot and killed Bouhlel outside the Hyatt hotel and casino. Prime Minister Manuel Valls addressed the attack Friday morning after a cabinet meeting. “We will not give in to the terrorist threat. The times have changed, and France is going to have to live with terrorism.”

President François Hollande has extended France’s state of emergency for another three months. Originally, the state of emergency was supposed to be over at the end of the month in the wake of the attacks in and around Paris Nov. 13. He has also called for three days of mourning beginning Saturday, where the flags will fly at half staff. Hollande said he in no way doubts that the attack had ties to terror.

“We have an enemy who is going to continue to strike all the people, all the countries who have freedom as a fundamental value,” Hollande said. “France is afflicted, but she is strong, and she will always be stronger than the fanatics who want to strike her.”

INTERPOL Incident Response Team being deployed to #Nice to provide disaster victim identification assistance

— INTERPOL (@INTERPOL_HQ) July 15, 2016

Heroic motorcyclist loses life in attempt to stop #NiceAttack https://t.co/42bPpUgBSj pic.twitter.com/m7GQvrnMjs

— RT (@RT_com) July 15, 2016

Another horrific attack, this time in Nice, France. Many dead and injured. When will we learn? It is only getting worse.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2016

Inez Nicholson

Inez is an editorial intern at Law Street from Raleigh, NC. She will be a junior at North Carolina State University and is studying political science and communication media. When she’s not in the newsroom, you can find her in the weight room. Contact Inez at INicholson@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Nice Attack: 84 Dead From Deadly Truck Rampage appeared first on Law Street.

In May 2011, a man was arrested in a Paris suburb, along with eight others, for planning to travel to Pakistan to wage jihad. He was imprisoned for two years while awaiting trial. A judge sentenced him to three more years in prison. But he was released immediately following the trial, as it’s French practice to dock years spent in prison awaiting trial off the eventual sentence. On Monday, that man, Larossi Abballa, stabbed two police officers to death and held their three year-old son hostage until a police raid killed Abballa and rescued the boy.

Given that Abballa pledged to the Islamic State, or ISIS, during the raid, and a statement from ISIS’s official news service Amaq alluded to Abballa as an “Islamic State fighter,” Monday’s gruesome attack has been dubbed “incontestably a terrorist act” by French President Francois Hollande. Coming just months after the terror Paris faced in November, when 130 were killed in coordinated strikes across the city, and the horrific massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida over the weekend, France and other Western nations are on especially high alert concerning independent terrorist actors.

The terrorist threat “is high in France, it’s high in Europe, it’s high in the Western world as shown by the events that happened 48 hours ago in the United States,” French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Tuesday morning. He also said more than 100 people have been arrested in France so far this year in connection to terrorist activities.

The stabbings occurred in Magnanville, a small town on the Seine river, roughly 35 miles west of Paris. According to statements by the French Interior Ministry, Abballa, 25, murdered a police captain and his partner outside their home. He could not decide how to handle their three year-old son, so he held him hostage in the home of the slain police officers. The boy was rescued and Aballa killed by police in a three hour operation. Police raided Abballa’s home Tuesday morning, and reportedly found a hit list with names of “rappers, journalists, police officers and public personalities.”

As police conducted their investigation and journalists covered the attack Monday night through Tuesday morning, some notable bits of information regarding the circumstances before and during the stabbings have surfaced: On Monday, before he killed the two police officers, Abballa spent so long praying at his neighborhood mosque that the rector of the mosque had to ask him to leave. In addition, France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor said Abballa shot a 12-minute video of him during the attack which he made public on Facebook Live, the social media network’s live video service. The video–and Abballa’s account–have been removed.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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While the world mourned the terrorist attacks in Paris, another attack occurred in the African nation of Mali. Last Friday, terrorists took 170 hostages and killed 19 people at a Radisson Hotel in Mali’s capital of Bamako. The hotel allegedly was targeted because it was a popular place for foreigners. The group that claimed responsibility for the attack was Al Mourabitoun, a group associated with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. While the attack itself was a serious concern, for Mali it follows a series of troubling incidents that have included a rebellion, a coup, and several terrorist organizations, including one associated with the recent bombing, becoming increasingly aggressive, all within the least three years.

Kings in the North

The country of Mali has been populated for thousands of years by a hodge-podge of ethnic groups. It is also home to historically important places such as Timbuktu, once a regional center for trade and learning. The country became an important colony for the French during the 19^th and 20^th centuries. Following independence in 1960, Mali, like many other former colonies in Africa, experienced political and economic turmoil characterized by events such as coups and separatist movements.

The Tuareg

Last week’s terrorist attack was not the first from an internal insurgency. The Tuareg, a group that has lived in the territory that is now Mali since 500 BCE have been fighting against the state for decades. The Tuareg people are a collection of nomadic groups spread primarily across three countries; Mali, Niger, and Algeria, and it’s important to note that there’s significant diversity within the group.

Their society is hierarchical with very clear roles for individuals. They were originally animists before the arrival of Islam in the region. The group determined to win independence for the Tuareg in Mali goes by the acronym MNLA or National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad. The video bellows gives a detailed look at the Tuareg and why they are rebelling:

Following independence in the 1960s, some Tuareg demanded their own autonomous region in the north, an area they dubbed Azawad. This first rebellion was over a perceived marginalization and repression of the Tuareg people by the more successful south. This led to a series of small-scale clashes, but the rebellion was ultimately crushed.

A second Tuareg rebellion followed in the early 1990s. This fight centered on many of the same issues. However, this time, the Tuareg group was able to win greater concessions and were more successful in battle. Some of this success can be attributed to some tribes’ years fighting and becoming battle-hardened in Libya for its then-ruler Muammar Gadhafi. Nevertheless, the main issue of Tuareg autonomy remained unsettled and led to a third rebellion. This third rebellion, which started in 2006, consisted more of hit and run type attacks by Tuareg fighters on Malian soldiers and failed peace deals.

The most recent rebellion began in 2012. In this case, battle-tested Tuareg rebels who had stolen large amounts of weapons from Libya once again attacked Mali soldiers. With their new weapons and alliances with various Islamic extremist groups, the Tuareg were able to make substantial gains this time, taking over the northern half of the country. Although these rebellions are divided into different campaigns, the Tuareg struggle has been going on so long that some observers regard them as one continuous fight with times of increased violence.

The 2012 Coup

In 2012 Mali, like many other countries in Northern Africa and the Middle East, was also the site of coup. But unlike many of the others, which echoed the positive ethos of the Arab Spring, the Mali coup was different. First, in Mali, the man in charge was democratically elected and nearing the end of his term without any intention of running again. Additionally, those in charge of the coup were members of the military. But while military coups are certainly not rare, this one started from the bottom up with regular soldiers and low-ranking officers rebelling against the government. This is the inverse of the traditional pattern in which higher ranking officers, such as colonels or generals, are behind a revolt.

So why did this coup happen, and what explains its uniqueness? Much of that can be blamed on the rebellion in the north. Soldiers who had just been routed by the Tuareg were the ones who initiated the overthrow. These men were dissatisfied with how the Mali government was handling the insurrection, namely, at how they were ill-equipped to take on the Tuareg rebels, who were now well-supplied from weapons seized in Libya following Gaddafi’s collapse. The accompanying video gives a quick look at the coup in Mali and its immediate aftermath:

Extremism

As has been the case in other countries that have experienced coups or rebellions since the Arab Spring, the movement against the government has also included radical elements, including those from recognized terrorist groups. In Mali’s case, despite the uniqueness of the coup itself, this same principle holds true.

Following the victories against the Malian government forces in 2012, a number of Islamic extremist groups got involved in the movement. This mix is made of five main groups; Ansar Dine, Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao), al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the Signed-in-Blood Battalion, and the Islamic Movement for Azawad (IMA). Of these five, the two main and most active groups are Ansar Dine and AQIM.

Ansar Dine is the nationalistic Islamic group in Mali and it hopes to impose Sharia law across the whole country. The IMA is a splinter of this group, which broke off because it opposed the violent tactics of Ansar Dine and wanted to return to talks instead.

The other major player in the region is the AQIM. It also wants to impose Sharia Law on Mali, as well as erase the legacy of French colonial rule. It was created out of a combination of groups in 2007 and afterward it allied itself with Al-Qaeda. The Mujao and Signed-in-Blood Battalion are both off-shoots of this group. The Mujao wants to expand AQIM’s goals to all of the Western Africa. The Signed-in-Blood Battalion meanwhile, formed following a fallout between its leader and the AQIM. While these groups claim to be fighting for Malian interests the sect of Islam they represent, the Saudi sponsored Wahhabi, is in fact in conflict with that of the majority of Malians who are Sufi Muslims. Al Mourabitoun, the group that committed the recent hotel terrorist attack, is also associated with the AQIM.

Outside Influence and Peace

Role of the French

As Mali’s former colonial power, the French played a key role in the fight against the insurgency, as well as the recent terrorist attack and its aftermath.  In the instance of the 2012 rebellion, France sent in ground troops to launch a counter offensive as well as fighter jets, which launched airstrikes. These attacks, in concert with Malian efforts, were critical in the Malian government pushing back the extremists.

Additionally, during the recent attack by terrorists, elite French troops along with American counterparts, helped rescue hostages and kill the terrorists. However, the future of France’s role remains up in the air as it shifts its gaze to Syria, meaning less resources are available to assist the government of Mali. The following video gives an in-depth look at the French efforts in Mali:

End of the Conflict?

The most recent peace agreement was reached on June 20^th, which called for a ceasefire and for Taureg rebels to give up the territory they had taken and the weapons they had acquired in Libya.  However, actual peace remains elusive. Rebels have continued to breach the ceasefire, thus preventing any further steps at reconciling the country. Furthermore, even if Mali can get the rebels to reach a peace agreement and more importantly honor it, they still have to deal with the various terrorist elements in the country–the hotel attack is just one example of the potential violence wrought by some of these groups. Unlike the Tuareg who want autonomy and greater governmental support, these groups’ motivation is often religious in nature and their demands are then much harder to meet.

Conclusion

Mali is the perfect example, and victim, of events beyond its control. If Gaddafi had not been killed in Libya, it is reasonable to wonder if the Tuareg, who had been repeatedly crushed by the government, would have ever made the gains they did. If the Tuareg had never been so successful, it is equally as likely that no coup would have occurred and then also no French involvement. Of course if the French had never made a colony out of Mali in the first place, it may have developed along ethnic lines instead of being welded to together unwieldy. However, Mali is also the victim of its own doings. If it had not tried to crush the Tuareg for so long or marginalize them, it may not have eventually felt there wrath. Additionally, if it had more strenuously confronted extremists it might have prevented their ideology from taking root and becoming so powerful as well.

In the case of Mali then, there are a lot of ifs and buts, however the reality is unmistakable. As the attack last week drove home the country is at war with extremists entrenched in its own borders and possibly on the verge of breaking in two, if it fails to honor the latest peace treaty. Only time will tell if Mali can navigate these perils.

Resources

The Guardian: Mali Attack: More Than 20 Dead After Terrorist Raid on Bamako Hotel

Encyclopedia Britannica: Mali

Global Research: The Crisis in Mali a Historical Perspective on the Tuareg People

Al Jazeera: What do the Tuareg want?

New York Times: Soldiers Overthrow Mali Government in Setback for Democracy in Africa

International Business Times: Mali Tuareg Rebellion: the Fight for Independence of the Blue People

BBC: Mali Crisis Key Players

Time: Mali Hotel Attack Highlights France’s Strategic Dilemma

United Nations: Path to Peace in Mali

CNN: Mali Hotel Attack

Michael Sliwinski

Michael Sliwinski (@MoneyMike4289) is a 2011 graduate of Ohio University in Athens with a Bachelor’s in History, as well as a 2014 graduate of the University of Georgia with a Master’s in International Policy. In his free time he enjoys writing, reading, and outdoor activites, particularly basketball. Contact Michael at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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ISIS has officially taken responsibility for the horrific attacks in Paris on Friday that killed a confirmed 129 people, and left hundreds injured. Now, the Islamic extremist group reportedly points to DC as its next target in at least one of its newly released propaganda videos

Reuters obtained and translated a clip of the ISIS video where jihadists warn of a Paris-like attack on American soil saying,

We say to the states that take part in the crusader campaign that, by God, you will have a day, God willing, like France’s and by God, as we struck France in the center of its abode in Paris, then we swear that we will strike America at its center in Washington.

I say to the European countries that we are coming, coming with booby traps and explosives, coming with explosive belts and (gun) silencers and you will be unable to stop us because today we are much stronger than before.

The video has not been authenticated as an imminent threat by U.S. officials, however, its timing and reference to Paris’ highly-orchestrated massacres led many to believe its legitimacy. Some people even offered safe wishes for DC natives via social media.

If you’re in the DC area please be careful and keep yourself updated on everything, ISIS released a video with a direct threat on DC.

— cat mom (@emilyxsnapp) November 16, 2015

Why did Isis have to release that stupid video I’m already always on high alert everywhere I go in DC — high end hetero (@Marximillion_) November 16, 2015

The thought of DC being attacked by ISIS… Smh no words

— ｃｉａｒａ (@bbyxCC) November 16, 2015

Meanwhile, the French President Francois Hollande has declared that his country is at war. Hollande told a joint session of parliament,

We’re not engaged in a war of civilizations, because these assassins do not represent any. We are in a war against jihadist terrorism which is threatening the whole world.

Hollande has also pledged that not only will France not end its U.S.-backed air strikes in Iraq and Syria, but it will intensify them, hoping to lean on the U.S. for support.

During a G20 summit Monday in Antalya, Turkey, President Obama echoed his support for the airstrikes saying that they have been “effective in taking out key members of the terror group’s leadership and that a large presence of ground troops in Syria would be a mistake.” The comments come as some members of the GOP have criticized the president for not implementing a more aggressive U.S. military effort against ISIS. Regardless, the U.S. demonstrating its solidarity with France is crucial in helping the country bounce back from these attacks and hopefully prevent a future one.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

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