1995 France bombings

Terror attacks by Algerian militants

1995 France bombings

Part of the spillover of the Algerian Civil War and Islamic terrorism in Europe

Plaque commemorating the victims of the Saint-Michel station bombing on 25 July 1995

Location| Paris and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
Coordinates| 48°51′13″N 2°20′42″E﻿ / ﻿48.8537°N 2.3449°E﻿ / 48.8537; 2.3449
Date| 25 July – 17 October 1995 (1995-10-17)
Weapons| Improvised explosive devices, school bombing
Deaths| 8
Injured| 190
Perpetrator| Armed Islamic Group
Motive| To force the French government to withdraw support from the Algerian government during the Algerian Civil War
Convicted| Rachid Ramda

* v
* t
* e

Algerian Civil War

Beginning of war 1991–1994

* 1990 Algerian local elections
* Guemmar
* 1991 legislative elections
* 1992 coup
* Assassination of Mohamed Boudiaf
* Algiers
* Blida
* Assassinations of journalists

Escalation 1994–1996

* Tazoult
* Tenes
* Ain Allah
* Berrouaghia
* Air France Flight 8969
* Algiers
* Sundus
* Serkadji
* Ain Defla
* Ghardaïa
* France

Massacres and reconciliation 1996–1999

* Algiers
* Tibhirine
* Tamesguida
* Thalit
* Haouch Khemisti
* Omaria
* Chouardia
* 1997 legislative elections
* M'sila
* Si Zerrouk
* Oued El-Had and Mezouara
* Souhane
* Beni Ali massacre
* Rais
* Beni Messous
* Guelb El-Kebir
* Bentalha
* Sidi Daoud
* Sid El-Antri
* 1st Relizane
* 2nd Relizane
* Sidi-Hamed
* Oued Bouaicha
* Tadjena

Defeat of the GIA 1999–2002

* 1999 presidential election
* Beni Ounif
* 1999 Algerian Civil Concord referendum
* Assassination of Abdelkader Hachani
* Killing of Antar Zouabri
* Sahara
* Sétif

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.

The assassination of Abdelbaki Sahraoui, a co-founder of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), was a prelude to the extension of the Islamists' terrorist campaign in France.[1]

## Attacks

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Main article: 1995 Paris RER bombing

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 EPIGN gendarmerie 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

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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]

According to FBI terrorism consultant Evan Kohlmann, part of the money used to finance the bombings came from people connected to the Brandbergen Mosque in Haninge, Sweden.[13]

## Aftermath

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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]

Vigipirate, the French national security alert system was activated in September 1995 as a result of the attacks, and is still in place in 2020.[17] The crisis only lessened when Lionel Jospin became prime minister in 1997 and Abdelaziz Bouteflika became the new Algerian president in 1999.[18]

## See also

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* France portal
* 1990s portal
* Law portal

* Boualem Bensaid
* Khaled Kelkal
* Rachid Ramda
* Djamel Zitouni
* Transit police
* List of Islamist terrorist attacks
* List of terrorist incidents in France
* 1996 Paris RER bombing
* Air France Flight 8969

## Notes and references

[edit]

1. ^ "Rachid Ramda jugé pour l'ultime procès des attentats de 1995", in Libération, 1 October 2007 read on-line Archived 21 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine (in French)
2. ^ France 2 News, July, 25th 1994 on INA website
3. ^ Julien Lariège, Islamistes algériens au cœur de l'Europe, Ellipses, 2005, p. 113
4. ^ France 2 News, 17 August 1994 on INA website
5. ^ Hassane Zerrouky, "Attentats de 1995: comment le GIA a tissé sa toile", L’Humanité, 1 June 1999
6. ^ Shay, Shaul (5 July 2017). The Globalization of Terror: The Challenge of Al-Qaida and the Response of the International Community. Routledge. ISBN 9781351482165.
7. ^ Franck, Johannes; Fromentin, Bernard. "La bande-son de la fin de Khaled Kelkal". Liberation. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Sophie Bouniot, "Des dénégations absurdes face aux preuves irréfutables" [archive], humanite.fr, 24 October 2002
10. ^ "Terrorism and the law: The non-trial". The Economist, 20 October 2005.
11. ^ UK sends back Metro bomb accused, BBC, 1 December 2005 (in English)
12. ^ French court convicts Algerian of Paris bombings[dead link‍]
13. ^ Petersson, Claes (13 July 2005). "Terrorbas i Sverige" (in Swedish). Aftonbladet. Archived from the original on 6 December 2006. Retrieved 3 March 2007.
14. ^ Une politique de l’oubli. La mémoire de la guerre en France et en Algérie, Le sociographe, number 46, June 2014, pp. 85–95
15. ^ Laurent Bonelli, "Les caractéristiques de l'antiterrorisme français: "Parer les coups plutôt que panser les plaies"", http://www.lemonde.fr, 11 September 2008
16. ^ Jean Quatremer, "Jacques Chirac verrouille les frontières françaises. L'entrée en vigueur de Schengen serait repoussée.", Libération, 20 September 1995
17. ^ Matthieu Suc, "Vigipirate : la permanence d’un état d’exception", Le Monde, 7 September 2015
18. ^ Guy Pervillé, "Vingt ans après 1995: les attentats de Paris, Lyon et Lille reconsidérés", http://www.lefigaro.fr, 24 July 2015

* v
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Islamic terrorism in Europe

General|

* Terrorism in Europe
* Islamic terrorism
* Islamic extremism
* Islam and violence
* Jihadism
* Spillover of the Syrian Civil War
* ISIL-related terrorist attacks in France
* Brussels ISIL terror cell
* Cannes-Torcy cell
* Insurgency in the North Caucasus
* Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
* Al-Qaeda involvement in Europe
* Lone wolf
* Salafi jihadism

Attacks|

| East|

* 2017 Saint Petersburg Metro bombing
* Shchelkovo Highway police station attack
* Crocus City Hall attack

|

North|

* 2010 Stockholm bombings
* 2015 Copenhagen shootings
* 2017 Stockholm truck attack
* 2017 Turku attack
* 2022 Oslo shooting

| United
Kingdom|

* 2005 London bombings
* Glasgow Airport attack
* Murder of Lee Rigby
* 2017 Westminster attack
* Manchester Arena bombing
* 2017 London Bridge attack
* Parsons Green train bombing
* 2019 London Bridge stabbing
* 2020 Streatham stabbing
* 2020 Reading stabbings
* Murder of David Amess

|

South|

* 2003 Istanbul bombings
* 2004 Madrid train bombings
* 2017 Barcelona attacks

West|

* 2020 Vienna attack

| Belgium|

* Jewish Museum of Belgium shooting
* 2016 Brussels bombings
* 2016 stabbing of Charleroi police officers
* 2016 stabbing of Brussels police officers
* June 2017 Brussels attack
* August 2017 Brussels attack
* 2018 Liège attack

|

France|

* Air France Flight 8969
* 1995 bombings
* Toulouse and Montauban shootings
* 2013 La Défense attack
* 2014 Tours police station stabbing
* 2015 Île-de-France attacks
* Charlie Hebdo shooting
* Hypercacher siege
* 2015 Nice stabbing
* Saint-Quentin-Fallavier attack
* 2015 Thalys train attack
* 2015 Paris attacks
* 2016 Paris police station attack
* 2016 Magnanville stabbing
* 2016 Nice truck attack
* 2016 Normandy church attack
* 2017 Orly Airport attack
* 2017 Champs-Élysées attack
* 2017 Notre Dame attack
* 2017 Champs-Élysées ramming
* Levallois-Perret attack
* 2017 Marseille stabbing
* Carcassonne and Trèbes attack
* 2018 Paris knife attack
* 2018 Strasbourg attack
* 2019 Lyon bombing
* Paris police headquarters stabbing
* 2020 Romans-sur-Isère knife attack
* 2020 Paris stabbing attack
* Murder of Samuel Paty
* 2020 Nice stabbing
* Rambouillet knife attack

Germany|

* 2011 Frankfurt Airport shooting
* Hanover stabbing
* Würzburg train attack
* 2016 Ansbach bombing
* 2016 Berlin truck attack
* 2017 Hamburg knife attack
* 2020 Dresden knife attack

Netherlands|

* Murder of Theo van Gogh
* 2018 Amsterdam stabbing attack
* 2019 Utrecht tram shooting

Counter-
terrorism|

| Operations|

* Opération Sentinelle, France
* Operation Vigilant Guardian, Belgium
* Operation Temperer, UK

|

Raids|

* 2014 anti-terrorism operations in Norway
* January 2015 anti-terrorism operations in Belgium
* Brussels lockdown
* 2016 Brussels police raids
* 2015 Saint-Denis, France raid
* 2017 Saint Petersburg raid

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