Preliminary Evidence Indicates Paris Attack Was Carried Out by Trained Fighters, Experts Say

The level of planning and synchronization exhibited in Friday’s terror attacks in Paris — with six separate but near-simultaneous incidents killing almost 130 people — makes it likely that they were executed (or at least planned) by experienced combatants, multiple analysts cited by Bloomberg are saying.

“For terrorists to inflict such a large amount of damage they must have been trained very well,” Ghanem Nuseibeh, founder of London-based risk consultancy Cornerstone Global Associates told Bloomberg. “It’s not a layman and it’s not a lone attacker.”

Roger Shanahan, a Middle East security expert at the Australian National University, added that the strikes across Paris clearly “took a fair degree of planning and central direction.” He further speculated that the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) could be responsible.

Although ISIS supporters praised the attacks on social media, and France is currently carrying out airstrikes against its militants in Syria, the terrorist group has not yet claimed responsibility for what happened in Paris.

An eyewitness was quoted as saying that one of the attackers blamed “all the harm done by [French President Francois] Hollande to Muslims all over the world” before opening fire. Another attacker was said to have shouted “This is for Syria!”

[Bloomberg]

Write to Rishi Iyengar at rishi.iyengar@timeasia.com.