France Remembers Paris ISIS Attack 10 Years On

France marked the 10th anniversary of the ISIS attacks of 2015, during which terrorists armed with guns and suicide bombs killed 130 people in a lethal series of coordinated attacks in Paris.

Patrons of cafés and restaurants and attendees at an Eagles of Death Metal gig at the Bataclan concert hall were gunned down in the deadliest attacks on French soil since the end of World War II.

Memorials started at 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 13, led by French President Emmanuel Macron and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, joining officials, survivors, and relatives of victims paying tribute to the victims and survivors.

The events began at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis—where two suicide bombers unsuccessfully attempted to enter during a soccer match before detonating their devices to begin the attack—and moved on to the restaurants and cafés in the 10th and 11th arrondissements that were assaulted, before heading to the Bataclan.

The commemorations come to a close at the Jardin du 13-Novembre, a new memorial garden opposite Paris City Hall.

The garden was constructed with input from victims’ associations and bears the names of the 132 victims on a granite slab, with plantings that echo the attack sites and benches for reflection. Designers added small signs of life—bird baths, nesting boxes, and shade—for children at the request of families.

Paris’s iconic Eiffel Tower will again be lit in the blue, white, and red of the French tricolor after nightfall, as it was on the night of Nov. 12.

The Fédération française de football, the French soccer association, will also observe a minute of silence at the national team’s World Cup qualifier against Ukraine at the Parc des Princes on Thursday night.

The Night of the Attack

On the night of Nov. 13, 2015, ISIS terrorists armed with firearms and suicide vests unleashed a series of attacks across the French capital within minutes of one another.

A trio of suicide bombers detonated their devices outside the Stade de France, the country’s most famous sports ground, as the French national team took on Germany.

They arrived late to the stadium and were unable to gain access because they did not have tickets, according to eyewitnesses, who saw them turned away by security.

The explosions, which could be heard inside the stadium and in the background of the television coverage of the game, resulted in the deaths of the terrorists and one bystander.

Within an hour, gunmen had sprayed bullets across café terraces, and three terrorists had stormed the Bataclan, where American rock band the Eagles of Death Metal were performing. The gunmen slaughtered 90 people before police ended the siege.

Two survivors of the massacre in the theater, who later took their own lives, have since been recognized as victims of the attack.

The Fallout

France was in a declared state of emergency for two years after the attack, which was eventually lifted following the introduction of a new anti-terrorism law in 2017, which gave the authorities increased powers to place individuals under house arrest, conduct searches, close places of worship, and carry out identity checks near borders.

A 2021–2022 trial ended by handing life imprisonment without parole to Salah Abdeslam, the lone surviving terrorist, and convicting 19 others.

Since the attack of 2015, the potency of the ISIS terrorist group has been vastly diminished across Europe, although the group persists in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa and maintains a presence online.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.