ISIS Launches Devastating Attack on Paris

Islamic terrorists have carried out horrific attacks across the City of Light, leaving at least 153 innocent people dead, most of them at a rock concert at the Bataclan concert hall where the California group Eagles of Death Metal were giving a concert. This was the largest of a co-ordinated group of attacks across the city, and there is no certainty that the attacks are over either in France or elsewhere. American Airlines has suspended flights to Paris, but so far no other airlines have followed suit. Yesterday in the US, there were numerous laser attacks on aircraft, but no damage was reported and none of the pilots involved were blinded. Whether this was part of a larger worldwide attack is unknown. Last week, ISIS successfully placed a bomb aboard a Russian airliner in Egypt, causing it to crash with the loss of all aboard.

Belgium has increased security at its border, and other European countries are following suit. It can be expected that ISIS, which is under attack by Russia, the United States, France and the UK, will continue its attacks around the world. ISIS is amply funded by the sale of oil from supplies captured in Syria, and by wealthy Arab sympathizers. Yesterday, the Kurdish Peshmurgah force, supported by intense American air strikes, cut a critical supply route between Syria and the Iraqi city of Mosul, which has been under the control of ISIS for over a year.

ISIS was created not by fanatics, but by officers in the former Iraqi army, which was disbanded by the US after the Iraq war. They have used religious extremism to motivate their followers. The Iraqi army was Sunni, and the present Iraqi government is Shiite, and there is an ages-old enmity between the two groups. Iraq, as a Shiite state, is now allied with Iran while ISIS is supported by Sunnis throughout Iraq and in the Arabian peninsula.