A suspected Islamic terrorist
beheaded one person in an attack that didn’t happen in some Middle-East or in
some crisis-torn African nation. It happened in France. And within six months
of the deadly attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on January 9 in
Paris. In an Islamic State orchestrated attack, terrorists had killed almost
entire editorial staff of the magazine behind the controversial cartoons of the
Prophet. No one has taken responsibility of today’s attack yet but the signs
are clear.
Reports say attacker targeted an
American gas and chemicals company, Air Products, which has an Iranian-born
Shiite CEO, in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier in South-Eastern France. The target says
much – an American company with a Shia CEO in an European country that is also an important
ally of the US in ‘coordinated’ aerial attacks on the IS. Yes, the attacker
didn’t get the ‘scale of destruction’ right, but if he was trying to send a
terror message, he was obviously on the spot.
The perpetrators of the deadly
attack on Charlie Hebdo are dead but the world doesn’t know about their allies.
Also, wife of one of the terrorists, who attacked a Jewish store, reportedly
fled France successfully to join the IS.
Also, the French Police say they,
so far – had thwarted five terror strikes since the Charlie Hebdo attack.
But they could not thwart this
one. The sixth happened today. And it is not about the dead-count, it is about
the message.
The Arabic inscriptions on
severed head, on beheaded body and on flags tell all and the IS, sooner or
later, will take responsibility or will come with a statement glorifying the
attack. After all, it’s a propaganda savvy terror outfit with a ‘larger than
country Caliphate’ ambition.
With this attack in France (with
a beheading) on a day that also saw two big terror attacks by the IS (or its
affiliates) in two different continents, Kuwait in Asia and Tunisia in Africa,
terrrorsts have tried to send their message once again – through killings and
destruction – like the IS does so everyday in its area of control – like it’s
propaganda videos of brutal executions show. The attacks were coordinated
across three continents on a Friday, around the prayer time, in the holy month
of Ramadan.
The war, if we say so, has proved
a show of reluctance so far, with limited achievements that have failed to
deter the IS. The ‘so-called’ coordinated attacks have been dragging on for
months but the IS remains a major force in North and West Iraq and in large
parts of Syria. And as long as it remains so, even a status-quo will keep
threatening the world with more terror designs.
Today’s were, in three countries,
across three continents, certainly one (or some) of them.
