A series of attacks targeted public transport systems in Paris and Lyon, as well as a school in Villeurbanne, in 1995. They were carried out by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria (GIA), who sought to expand the Algerian Civil War to France. The attacks killed eight people, all during the first attack on 25 July. The attack also injured 190 people.
On 25 July 1995 a gas bottle exploded in the Saint-Michel station of line B of the RER metropolitan train system in Paris. Emergency service vehicles then used Place Saint-Michel and the surrounding bridges and streets to attend the scene, while Parvis Notre-Dame became a helicopter landing site and a nearby café, Le depart Saint-Michel, was used as a field hospital. At 8:00 that evening, national news on France 2 announced that four people had been killed and another 40 injured in a "mysterious explosion". At that time, no official sources had confirmed that it was a terrorist attack.[2] This was only confirmed later, and the outcome was said to be eight deaths and 117 injured.[3] It was the deadliest terror attack in France since the 1983 Orly Airport attack, and would be the only deadly attack for the GIA's 1995 bombing campaign in France.[citation needed]
On 17 August, a second bomb hidden in a public bin near the Arc de Triomphe wounded 16 people. The bomb was composed of a gas bottle filled with nails.[4]
On 26 August a huge bomb was found on the railway tracks of a high-speed rail line near Lyon. It was supposed to explode when a train passed. Fingerprints of Khaled Kelkal and Boualem Bensaïd were found on the bomb. The leader of the group, Khaled Kelkal was quickly identified and his picture appeared all over France.[5] Bombing attacks continued with an attack on 3 September at an open market in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, causing three injuries; and on 7 September when a car bomb exploded near a Jewish school in Villeurbanne, a town near Lyon, causing thirteen injuries.[6]
The wanted suspect, Khaled Kelkal, was killed on 29 September by members of the French EPIGNgendarmerie unit near Lyon as he resisted arrest.[7] Nonetheless, the attacks continued on 6 October, the day of Khaled Kelkal's funeral; another gas bottle exploded in the Maison Blanche station of the Paris Métro, wounding twelve people. Boualem Bensaïd's fingerprints were again found on the bomb. The next day, a statement from GIA commander Djamel Zitouni, written on 23 September, arrived at the Reuters press agency in Cairo. He said the "Jihad"- the "military strikes at the heart of France", were intended to punish it for supporting the Algerian government. A letter was also sent to Jacques Chirac through the French Embassy in Algiers, urging him to convert to Islam.[8]
On 17 October a gas bottle exploded between the Musée d'Orsay and Saint-Michel–Notre-Dame stations of RER Line C, wounding 29. Investigators found a transportation card on Smaïn Aït Ali Belkacem used a few minutes before the attack in a nearby underground station.[9]
Additional bombs were found and cleared without casualties during morning searches of Metro and RER stations, often in public toilets. Increased security required the removal of all public bins, to prevent bombs from being hidden inside.[citation needed]
Arrests and trials
Members of the Armed Islamic Group and the "Kelkal Group" have since been prosecuted on various charges. Some suspects fled to the United Kingdom. Extradition proceedings against Rachid Ramda began in 1995 and went on for nearly ten years, during which Ramda remained detained in London's Belmarsh Prison.[10] Ramda was eventually extradited to France on 1 December 2005 in connection with the bombings.[11] On 26 October 2007 Ramda was sentenced to life in prison for financing the attacks.[12]
Algeria-France relations were heavily affected by these events. Jacques Chirac refused to meet with Algerian ministers, openly saying that the GIA could have been manipulated by the Algerian secret services.[14]
Legislation on terrorism in France was reinforced with a new law in 1996, allowing police forces to perform searches at night.[15] The French government also suspended the Schengen Acquis which allows free movement across borders within Europe, keeping the restrictions in place until March 1996.[16]
↑ Christophe Ayad et Franck Johannes, "Au lendemain de l'explosion d'une bombe à Paris, un message attribué au Groupe islamique armé dénonce le soutien français au régime d'Alger Un texte signé du GIA revendique la vague d'attentats et prône le 'jihad' en France", Libération, 9 October 1995
↑ Sophie Bouniot, "Des dénégations absurdes face aux preuves irréfutables" [archive], humanite.fr, 24 October 2002
↑ "Terrorism and the law: The non-trial". The Economist, 20 October 2005.
↑ Une politique de l’oubli. La mémoire de la guerre en France et en Algérie, Le sociographe, number 46, June 2014, pp. 85–95
↑ Laurent Bonelli, "Les caractéristiques de l'antiterrorisme français: "Parer les coups plutôt que panser les plaies"", http://www.lemonde.fr, 11 September 2008
↑ Jean Quatremer, "Jacques Chirac verrouille les frontières françaises. L'entrée en vigueur de Schengen serait repoussée.", Libération, 20 September 1995
↑ Matthieu Suc, "Vigipirate: la permanence d’un état d’exception", Le Monde, 7 September 2015
↑ Guy Pervillé, "Vingt ans après 1995: les attentats de Paris, Lyon et Lille reconsidérés", http://www.lefigaro.fr, 24 July 2015
The 2003 Casablanca bombings, commonly known as May 16, were a series of coordinated suicide bombings on May 16, 2003, in Casablanca, Morocco. Twelve suicide bombers loyal to the Salafia Jihadia organization detonated bombs hidden in backpacks in the Casa de España restaurant, the Hotel Farah, the Jewish Alliance of Casablanca, and sites near the Belgian consulate and an old Jewish cemetery. The attacks, which were later claimed by al-Qaeda, were the deadliest terrorist attacks in Morocco's history, claiming the lives of forty-five people and injuring at least 100. Despite deliberately targeting Jews, none of the victims were Jews as the attack occurred during Shabbat.
Maison Blanche station is a station of the Paris Métro, serving lines 7 and 14. South of this station, Line 7 forks into two branches, one leading to ‹See TfM›Villejuif–Louis Aragon and the other to ‹See TfM›Mairie d'Ivry. Since June 2024, it is an interchange with Line 14 running southwards to Aéroport d'Orly.
Khaled Kelkal was a French and Algerian terrorist affiliated with the GIA. He was involved in the 1995 terror bombings in France.
Abdelbaki Sahraoui was a co-founder of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in Algeria.
Saint-Michel–Notre-Dame is a station on line B and line C of the Réseau Express Régional (RER) in Paris. Located in the 5th arrondissement, the station is named after the nearby Saint-Michel area and Notre-Dame Cathedral. The station opened, as Pont Saint-Michel and with platforms on the line that is now RER line C, in 1900. It gained its current name in 1988 with the opening of the line B platforms.
Musée d'Orsay is a station in line C of the Paris Region's Réseau Express Régional (RER) rapid transit system, named after the Musée d'Orsay, housed in the former Gare d'Orsay. It is in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, on the Quai Anatole-France. It was one of several stations attacked during the 1995 Paris Métro and RER bombings.
Rachid Ramda is an Algerian man convicted of the 1995 bombings against French public transportation systems. He has denied his involvement.
Boualem Bensaïd is an Algerian member of GIA, an Islamic terrorist organization. He has been accused of an attempted bombing during the 1995 terror campaign in France.
Abu Abdul-Rahman Amine, born Djamel bin Mohamed Zitouni, was the leader of the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (1994–1996), a terrorist group responsible for carrying out a series of bombings in France in 1995. He was killed by a rival faction on July 16, 1996.
An Islamist insurgency is taking place in the Maghreb region of North Africa, followed on from the end of the Algerian Civil War in 2002. The Algerian militant group Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) allied itself with al-Qaeda to eventually become al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The Algerian and other Maghreb governments fighting the militants have worked with the United States and the United Kingdom since 2007, when Operation Enduring Freedom – Trans Sahara began.
Events from the year 1995 in France.
The Orly Airport attack was the 15 July 1983 bombing of a Turkish Airlines check-in counter at Orly Airport in Paris, by the Armenian militant organization ASALA as part of its campaign for the recognition of and reparations for the Armenian genocide. The explosion killed eight people and injured 55.
Paris attacks may refer to the following:
On 3 December 1996 an IED detonated on the southbound tracks of the Port-Royal Réseau Express Régional (RER) station in Paris, France. Four people were killed in the bombing: two French citizens, a Moroccan and a Canadian.
From March to May 1998, a terror plot against the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France was uncovered by European law enforcement agencies. More than 100 people were arrested in seven countries as a result of the plot, although only some of them were tried or convicted. Organised by the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and backed by Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the plot is thought to have targeted the England–Tunisia match on 15 June 1998, and involved infiltrating the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille in order to attack players and spectators during the game, attack the hotel in Paris hosting the United States national team, and finally hijacking an aircraft and crashing it into the Civaux Nuclear Power Plant near Poitiers.
Farid Melouk is a French-Algerian former member of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and convicted terrorist, known for his central role in jihadist networks.
From 1985 to 1986, a series of terrorist attacks in Paris, France were carried out by the Committee for Solidarity With Arab and Middle Eastern Political Prisoners (CSPPA), a previously unknown group, demanding the release of three imprisoned international terrorists. The CSPPA was believed to have been some combination of Palestinians, Armenian nationalists, and Lebanese Marxists, though it was later reported that the attacks were believed to have involved operatives from Hezbollah, sponsored by the Iranian state. The CSPPA demanded the release of Anis Naccache, from the Iranian state network; Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, member of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF); and Varadjian Garbidjan, member of the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA).
Jean-François Ricard is a French magistrate, and since 25 June 2019 the first prosecutor of the National Terrorism Prosecution Office a parquet for the prosecution of terrorism in France.
The 1995 Paris RER bombing took place on 25 July 1995, when an improvised explosive device was detonated inside of a railcar on line B of the Réseau Express Régional. Eight were killed and 117 more were injured. The Armed Islamic Group of Algeria claimed responsibility for the attacks, which were one of several attacks that took place across France in 1995.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
