Attacks in Paris

[kaz7]

The suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, has been identified as one of those killed in Tuesday's raid in the suburb of Saint Denis, the Paris prosecutor says.

His body was found riddled with bullets and shrapnel in the shattered apartment in the northern suburb.

The Belgian national, 28, was identified from his fingerprints.

Friday's gun and suicide bomb attacks in the French capital left 129 people dead and hundreds injured.

Eight people were arrested and at least two killed in the raid on the property in Saint Denis.


Heavily armed police stormed the building after a tip-off that Abaaoud was in Paris.

Image copyright AFP
Image caption At least two bodies were removed from the apartment in Saint Denis on Wednesday
A woman at the flat - reported in French media to be Abaaoud's cousin - died during the raid after activating a suicide vest.

The prosecutor's office said it was still unclear whether Abaaoud had blown himself up or not.

Investigators are still looking for another suspect, Salah Abdeslam, who is believed to have travelled to Belgium after the attacks on Friday night.

The BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris says the identification of Abaaoud raises serious questions for security services.

He was high on French and Belgian wanted lists and yet managed to travel from Syria to the heart of Paris without ever leaving a trace.

 

[Balti]

So the ring leader is dead is he?

''riddled with bullets and shrapnel'' :=)

shame we couldn't torture the **** in guantanamo bay for a decade or two first tbf

 

[bluemoonmatt]

As patronising as ever, I see. I'd be grateful if you'd remove your magnificence from this thread and got back to your 'important stuff'. Ta.

totally unnecessary coleridge

 

[Blue Smarties]

Just seen the footage from the pizzeria where the gunman looks to either have run out of bullets or the gun has misfired, whilst stood over some poor woman pointing his gun at close range.

Wow. One lucky lady.

Gun jammed.

 

[George Hannah]

I've written something for @Lucky Toma /the daisy cutter which sums up how i feel. I don't really care about the arguments being had in this thread. They're pretty insignificant.

here's the article referred to
A Letter From the 11e
Posted on Nov 19, 2015 in Features, Main Features | 0 comments



Cutter writer Ahsan Naeem is a resident of Paris, a city that he loves and calls home. In a week that saw its football stadium, restaurants, clubs, and way of life come under attack he tells his story.

It’s taken six days or so but I realise that I need to formulate words onto a screen to help me come to terms in some small way with what happened in Paris last Friday evening.

Where was I when my friends and acquaintances were scattered across the 10 and 11 arrondissements in Paris? At home in my apartment maybe a quarter of a mile from the Bataclan, a quarter of a mile from Rue Charonne, and a couple of miles from Le Carillon. To begin to unfold why that’s significant is a little like removing the bandage from a particularly nasty wound knowing what I find underneath is still bleeding.

Proximity is only one part of it. Physical proximity. The real proximity, the thing which cannot be fully expressed in words, is the emotional proximity. The Bataclan is somewhere I knew like the back of my hand. Having worked in music for many years, I had the privilege of seeing many of my favourite bands there, of working with bands who played there. The smell of the room, the shape of the room, the access points in and out, where the merchandise desk sat, how the entrance led to a sunken dance floor where we would congregate to dance and drink and laugh with our friends.

Le Carillon was no different. A hub for Parisians and ex pats alike. Sitting on a crossroads with Le Petit Cambodge, and the first pizza place in Paris I ever visited. Two of my closest friends lived in an apartment on the same street. The chances of not one of my close friends being there last Friday night were so ridiculously remote that quite frankly realising on Saturday morning that none of us were was just more numbing information. How close the calls were are no less harrowing.

Two friends of mine exchanged text messages on Friday night.

“What are you doing tonight?”

“I think I’m gonna eat at the Petit Cambodge and then sit on the terrace at Le Carillon – what about you – you wanna join us?”

“No, fuck that I’m going to see Eagles at the Bataclan – but after the gig I’ll join you at Le Carillon”

He got out of the Bataclan with a bullet in his leg but otherwise intact. He’s okay. The other friend, the one who was going to take his girlfriend to eat and drink at that crossroads. His laziness saved his life. He never made it out of his apartment. Small mercies.

Others weren’t so lucky. My good friends lost friends. My wife to be lost a dear friend. The lady who teaches yoga on the ground floor of our building lost her best friend. There’s so much loss around the City and around our neighborhood that it feels like it’s been hollowed out. Something profound that made this City and this neighborhood pulsate has been removed. A beating heart has momentarily been stopped.

Now we crave normality again. I want the sound of sirens to stop. For the news media trucks to go away. For the sound of idle chatter on the metro to return. I want to be able to walk down Boulevard Voltaire in both directions, towards Rue Charonne, and towards the Bataclan, with the same joy and wonder with which I walked down it for the first time 7 years ago.

In my head I want to go back to caring about the trivial things. I want to listen to the football podcasts that have piled up this week. The Anfield Wrap, the Guardian Football Weekly, the Times Football podcast. I want to record my own podcast for the City v Liverpool match this weekend. I want to smile at the thought of Sterling scoring in front of the LFC supporters. I want to care about the result. Care about the match. Make it feel important. Because as trivial as everything feels right now, the trivial things feel important because they help remind me that life WILL go on.

I tweeted this on Saturday morning because it’s an emotional truth. “Paris is my home, the 11e is my home, the Bataclan is my local, Rue Charonne my neighbour, the restaurant (Le Petit Cambodge) my living room.”
My heart goes out to everyone who suffered and everyone suffering not just in Paris, but all over the world. We should stop killing each other before it’s too late.

Thank you Stephen and the Daisy Cutter for indulging me in this.



We’ll forever be on terraces across the City. That terrace I’m sitting on in this picture is just a stone’s throw from the first restaurant to be attacked. We’ll go back there this weekend in defiance.

 

[coleridge]

totally unnecessary coleridge

I'll say what I want, thanks. You are not my moral guardian.

 

[bluemoonmatt]

I'll say what I want, thanks. You are not my moral guardian.

Your'e right I'm not. To be you're moral guardian I suspect you'd have to have morals for me to guard.

 

[coleridge]

Your'e right I'm not. To be you're moral guardian I suspect you'd have to have morals for me to guard.

Carry on with your insults. I am not interested.

 

[bluemoonmatt]

Carry on with your insults. I am not interested.

Apologies, couldn't resist. You read the article BS wrote? George Hannah has copied it above, I found it quite compelling.

 

[coleridge]

Apologies, couldn't resist. You read the article BS wrote? George Hannah has copied it above, I found it quite compelling.

Only just. I am about to apologise to my old bro for my stupid rashness.

 

[Chris in London]

Ah, hoped nobody would remember but as GDM said at the time, I would rue the day I alienated all the forum intellectuals.

There is a doubtless a time for the occasional bit of isolating emphasis but it's essentially a conceit.

If used habitually it would probably double the bandwith consumption as well.

Fixed.

 

[coleridge]

@BillyShears On hands and knees apologies for my thoughtless, rash post. I am sorry for all your losses and the grief that you must all be feeling. I am not just being sycophantic when I say that it's the best article I've seen on the terrible events.
My own insignificant anecdotes are that my mother was at a meeting in the next street to the Tavistock bomb [7/7] and there was no phone coverage for two hours after. Second, on the day of the IRA bomb [1996], the lads and me were going into town to watch the England-Scotland game in the pub. We begged the taxi driver to get us to the nearer pub to the bomb so we could say Fuck You to the terrorists. However, the police stopped the traffic at the Uni and we had to get to the nearer pub there instead.

 

[coleridge]

@George Hannah Please can you send me the link to that article as I wish to pass it on. Thanks.

 

[BillyShears]

@BillyShears On hands and knees apologies for my thoughtless, rash post. I am sorry for all your losses and the grief that you must all be feeling. I am not just being sycophantic when I say that it's the best article I've seen on the terrible events.
My own insignificant anecdotes are that my mother was at a meeting in the next street to the Tavistock bomb [7/7] and there was no phone coverage for two hours after. Second, on the day of the IRA bomb [1996], the lads and me were going into town to watch the England-Scotland game in the pub. We begged the taxi driver to get us to the nearer pub to the bomb so we could say Fuck You to the terrorists. However, the police stopped the traffic at the Uni and we had to get to the nearer pub there instead.

No need to apologise - was obvious from your posts you didn't know how close I was to what happened. I was writing you a PM when I saw this post. Hope you and yours are all well.

 

[coleridge]

No need to apologise - was obvious from your posts you didn't know how close I was to what happened. I was writing you a PM when I saw this post. Hope you and yours are all well.

No, an apology was in order.
I have published your piece on my Social Media sites so expect a boring lawyers fan base soon.
I was saying to my wife that, yes, it's really fucking sad, but that area of Paris looks great. Once I've dropped off three kids at Uni in a few years, we might even come and join you [don't panic, we'll get our own place].
As you say, the way to beat them is to carry on, that's all. I always get the tube when I go to London. I'd feel guilty if I didn't. Chin up and keep sitting on those terraces. By Sunday, you even feel ready to celebrate a City win!

 

[kas_tippler]

Islamofascists

Good description

 

[Zin 'messiah' Zimmer]

I've written something for @Lucky Toma /the daisy cutter which sums up how i feel. I don't really care about the arguments being had in this thread. They're pretty insignificant.

Excellent, descriptive piece of writing buddy.... I'm over there in Jan, I'll be buying you a cold one!!!!!

 

[kaz7]

The French national anthem - La Marseillaise - will be played before this weekend's Premier League matches.

A choral version will be played after the coin toss, with players from both teams coming together with match officials in the centre circle.

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore described it as an act of "solidarity and remembrance" after the Paris attacks in which 129 people died.

La Marseillaise was sung before England's win over France on Tuesday.

There are 72 French players currently in the Premier League.

"Given how close we are, as well as the long-standing relationship that exists between the Premier League and France, playing La Marseillaise as an act of solidarity and remembrance is the right thing to do," said Scudamore.

 

[BlueHammer85]

The French national anthem - La Marseillaise - will be played before this weekend's Premier League matches.

A choral version will be played after the coin toss, with players from both teams coming together with match officials in the centre circle.

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore described it as an act of "solidarity and remembrance" after the Paris attacks in which 129 people died.

La Marseillaise was sung before England's win over France on Tuesday.

There are 72 French players currently in the Premier League.

"Given how close we are, as well as the long-standing relationship that exists between the Premier League and France, playing La Marseillaise as an act of solidarity and remembrance is the right thing to do," said Scudamore.

This is way too over the top now.

Again, where are the national anthems of other country's that have been attacked recently ?

Will we having national anthems of other country's every time there's an attack in the future ? really see the premier league fans singing along to the German anthem ?

It really doesn't serve much purpose extending the condolences further

 

[kaz7]

This is way too over the top now.

Again, where are the national anthems of other country's that have been attacked recently ?

Will we having national anthems of other country's every time there's an attack in the future ? really see the premier league fans singing along to the German anthem ?

It really doesn't serve much purpose extending the condolences further

I agree,the national team is one thing but it's got nothing to do with the PL clubs on the pitch,they will be supporting the french players within the clubs if they need it