France marks first anniversary of coordinated attacks that left 130 dead
Published November 13, 2016
People placing flowers and candles on the pavement near the scene of Friday’s Bataclan theater terrorist attack in Paris, Nov. 14, 2015. (Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images)
(JTA) — France marked the first anniversary of a series of terror attacks that rocked Paris leaving 130 people dead.
French President Francois Hollande on Sunday unveiled memorial plaques at sites throughout the city where the November 13, 2015, attacks occurred.
The terrorist group Islamic State, or ISIS, claimed responsibility for the attacks. It said after the attacks it had struck at France because the country’s military was bombing ISIS terrorists in Iraq and Syria.
The final ceremony on Sunday took place outside the Bataclan, a formerly Jewish-owned concert hall in Paris that had sponsored pro-Israel events, where 90 people were killed as part of the coordinated attacks during a concert by California-based rock band Eagles of Death Metal.
The names of the killed were read out loud to a crowd that stood in silence, according to reports.
On Saturday night British rock star Sting performed the first concert in the reopened and refurbished Bataclan.
“We will not forget them,” the British singer told the crowd in French after a moment of silence for the victims.
Among the attacks were three shooting attacks that occurred in the northern 10th arrondissement, and a bomb attack at the Stade de France stadium north of central Paris. No specifically Jewish sites were targeted.
