Paris faced another act of terror in which a French national of Chechen origin stabbed one person to death and wounded four others near the Palais Garnier, the Parisian ballet and opera house in an opulent neighborhood packed with bars and restaurants. Chechnya, a predominantly Muslim region on the south of Russia, has been a major source of foreign fighters for the Islamic State and other Jihadist organizations. Western security officials have been concerned about the radicalization among Chechens living in the United States and Europe.
French investigators are treating the assault as a terrorist attack. Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the perpetrator yelled “Allahu Akbar!” – “God is great” – in Arabic before the stabbing. Police shot and killed the attacker shortly after the assault started. Police also said that the man had previously been blacklisted as a potential risk in one of France’s security databases, where the government keeps records of those who express sympathy for radical Islam.
France has been mired by terrorist attacks and thus put on high alert since the January 2015 terrorist attack at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. In November 2015, Jihadist militants killed 130 people in and around Paris in what was one of the worst terrorist attacks in European history. The Opera House stabbing is another in a series of attacks in which perpetrators planned their assaults by themselves, which makes it difficult for authorities to prevent violent acts committed by suspected radicals. “France once again pays the price of blood but won’t give an inch to the enemies of liberty,” French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted.
