France, 11 Days Into Insurgency?
(Washington Times) PARIS -- Police officers, exhausted and dispirited after 11 nights of street battles, say their mainly young African and Arab adversaries have access to sophisticated weapons including grenades and could soon begin using them.
A dozen officers were injured, two of them seriously, after being shot with hunting rifles fitted with lead pellets during rioting last night in the suburb of Grigny, south of Paris, police said.
PARIS (AP) - President Jacques Chirac promised Sunday to restore public order across France as unrest spread from suburban Paris to cities south and north, with rioters injuring ten police officers, throwing Molotov cocktails and ramming a car into a housing project during an 11th night of mayhem.
"What we notice is that the bands of youths are, little by little, getting more organized," arranging attacks through cell phone text messages and learning how to make gasoline bombs, Hamon said.
Police also found a gasoline bomb-making factory in a derelict building in Evry south of Paris. They confiscated 50 devices, fuel stocks and hoods for hiding rioters' faces, senior Justice Ministry official Jean-Marie Huet told The Associated Press. Police arrested six people, all under 18.
Riots or an Insurgency? Rioters usually don’t need grenades and firearms to express their “civil unrest”.
France still seems to think that treating this like isolated crimes will work:
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin promised speedy trials for rioters and extra security where it was needed. Chirac said France was determined to promote "respect for all, justice and equal opportunities."
Unfortuneatly, some are having to suffer for the French Government’s inability to accept what is really happening:
"Rioters attacked us with baseball bats," said Philippe Jofres, a deputy fire chief, told France-2 television. "We were attacked with pick axes. It was war."
(See Also: Baghdad or Paris, Muslim Insurgents Attacking France? )
A dozen officers were injured, two of them seriously, after being shot with hunting rifles fitted with lead pellets during rioting last night in the suburb of Grigny, south of Paris, police said.
PARIS (AP) - President Jacques Chirac promised Sunday to restore public order across France as unrest spread from suburban Paris to cities south and north, with rioters injuring ten police officers, throwing Molotov cocktails and ramming a car into a housing project during an 11th night of mayhem.
"What we notice is that the bands of youths are, little by little, getting more organized," arranging attacks through cell phone text messages and learning how to make gasoline bombs, Hamon said.
Police also found a gasoline bomb-making factory in a derelict building in Evry south of Paris. They confiscated 50 devices, fuel stocks and hoods for hiding rioters' faces, senior Justice Ministry official Jean-Marie Huet told The Associated Press. Police arrested six people, all under 18.
Riots or an Insurgency? Rioters usually don’t need grenades and firearms to express their “civil unrest”.
France still seems to think that treating this like isolated crimes will work:
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin promised speedy trials for rioters and extra security where it was needed. Chirac said France was determined to promote "respect for all, justice and equal opportunities."
Unfortuneatly, some are having to suffer for the French Government’s inability to accept what is really happening:
"Rioters attacked us with baseball bats," said Philippe Jofres, a deputy fire chief, told France-2 television. "We were attacked with pick axes. It was war."
(See Also: Baghdad or Paris, Muslim Insurgents Attacking France? )
