Islamic State Claims Responsibility for Attack on Police Chief in Paris

As the French government's response to the recent 'terrorist' attack in Paris, which left two dead, continues, the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack. According to Reuters, ISIS has taken responsibility for an attack in the suburbs of Paris that resulted in the death of a police officer and his wife. Earlier on Monday, June 14, police officials announced that the attacker had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. According to the spokesperson for the French Ministry of the Interior, the assailant first killed the senior police officer outside his home with a knife at around 9 PM local time and then took the officer's wife and three-year-old son hostage in their home in Magnaville, 55 kilometers west of Paris. The spokesperson stated that negotiations with the hostage-taker were unsuccessful, and ultimately, special police forces stormed the house and killed the assailant. As reported by Reuters, the 25-year-old attacker had previously been imprisoned in 2013 for aiding the transfer of Islamist militants to Pakistan and had since been under surveillance by French security forces. The assailant, identified as Laroussi Abala, fatally stabbed the 42-year-old police chief multiple times. In response to this incident, Bernard Cazeneuve, the French Minister of the Interior, described Laroussi Abala's actions as a 'terrorist act' on Tuesday morning, June 15. Mr. Cazeneuve, speaking after an emergency meeting with the French President, also announced that the government is fully mobilizing to combat terrorism and has arrested over a hundred individuals in this regard since the beginning of the current year. An eyewitness told AFP that a man with a knife attacked the police officer outside his home while shouting 'Allahu Akbar' and then went inside the house to take his wife and child hostage. Meanwhile, a source told AFP that the anti-terror police are investigating the circumstances of the incident and the statements made by the assailant.