Suspicion of terrorism after fatal attack in Paris: knife stabber knew other attackers World Climate Conference: China and US ignore the elephant in the room

A new knife attack has hit France and Germany. On Saturday evening, a 26-year-old man known to the police attacked travelers with a knife and a hammer not far from the Eiffel Tower. He stabbed a young German of Filipino descent twice in the back and shoulder on the Bir-Hakeim Bridge, causing the victim to go into cardiac arrest. The German victim’s companion was unharmed.

As Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin reported, a brave taxi driver was able to stop the attacker for the time being. When police arrived, the perpetrator fled over a bridge, where he injured a 60-year-old Frenchman and a Briton with a hammer. He was then held at gunpoint by the police. President Emmanuel Macron expressed his condolences on behalf of France to all the victims.

The gruesome act is reminiscent of the murder of a teacher in the northern French city of Arras, a few days after the Palestinian Hamas militia attacked Israel in October. The Paris attacker, whose name is given as Armand R., also shouted “Allahu Akbar” and told police he wanted revenge for the Muslims killed in Afghanistan and Palestine.

The perpetrator had contact with the ‘beheader’.

Armand R. was known to the police: the apparently unstable man had already planned a similar large-scale attack in the La Défense business district in Paris in 2016, a few months after the Bataclan attack. For this he was sentenced to five years in prison. He was released in 2020 and remained under psychiatric observation. However, a few months ago he reportedly stopped taking his stabilizing medications in consultation with his doctor. Nevertheless, he remained included in the police’s radical file.

A confession video with an oath of allegiance to the IS jihadist militia circulated on Sunday. However, terror experts are not sure whether the perpetrator actually appears in the short film. The person being filmed was not recognizable due to wearing sunglasses and a protective mask; He also spoke perfect Arabic. This despite the fact that Armand R. is of Iranian descent and was born in the chic Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine.

This is not the only reason why it is doubtful whether it was an act of a ‘lone wolf’, as they say in police jargon. According to the French Center for Terrorism Analysis (CAT), the perpetrator had contact with several previous attackers in France, such as the “beheading” of history teacher Samuel Paty and the murderer of priest Jacques Hamel in Normandy. The Public Prosecution Service also took the parents and sister of the suspected perpetrator into custody on Sunday.

Growing concerns about the Summer Olympics

This information is paradoxically seen as an indication that the circle of attackers who actually took action in France is smaller than police previously assumed. Nevertheless, the renewed increase in brutal knife murders in France is causing great consternation and concern.

Security expert Claude Moniquet believes the latest attack deliberately targeted tourists near the Eiffel Tower to “get the world’s attention.” This attack is “not intended to reassure visitors to the world’s premier travel destination.”

The French government is increasingly concerned about the Summer Olympics, which will take place in Paris in mid-2024. The crime scene is located on the six-kilometer stretch along the Seine where the three-hour opening ceremony will take place in front of hundreds of thousands of spectators.

Former French police chief Frédéric Péchenard expressed his concerns on Sunday. The celebration was too extensive to be fully followed. “I hope the government has a plan B if the international situation deteriorates,” he said. It is now probably too late to move the opening ceremony to July 26.