A man armed with a knife attacked a French anti-terror soldier outside of a Paris metro station, with reports that the assailant made ‘references to Allah and Islamic State’.
A soldier deployed as part of the anti-terror operation Sentinel was attacked by a knife-wielding man who is reported to have made references t0 “Daesh” (Islamic State), according to Le Parisien.
The attack occurred at 6:30 am local time Friday morning at the Chatelet metro station, and the man was arrested without causing injury to the soldier. No one else was attacked or injured.
According to a police source, the assailant “made references to Allah”. The attacker is believed to not be known to police.
This incident represents the seventh attack against soldiers patrolling as part of Operation Sentinel. Just last month on August 9th, Hamou Bachir attacked six soldiers on the streets of Paris by ramming them with his car before being apprehended and arrested.
“We do not know more about the aggressor’s intentions,” Army Minister Florence Parly told Europe 1, “but this new attack fully legitimises what we want to do [as part of Operation Sentinel], that is to make these measures… even more undetectable for potential attackers”
Operation Sentinel has been in operation since 2015 following the January 2015 terror attacks at the Charlie Hebdo office and Jewish Hypercache supermarket. The operation was reinforced after the November 2015 Bataclan and Stade de France attacks.
This story is developing…