France unable to put down insurrection

By Jim Kouri

While American soldiers successfully combat terrorists and insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, a widespread insurgency continues in France's emanating from Islamic migrant areas. The violence and destruction spread across the country yesterday with more than 900 cars torched in one night. Observers, experts in security and police operations, wonder if the French are capable of putting down this insurrection.

French police initiated a helicopter response and claim they arrested close to 200 Muslim rioters. Police commanders and their superiors say they intend to step up action against rioters responsible for 10 nights of violence.

The destruction has spread to the outskirts of other cities around the country — including Toulouse, Rennes, Nantes and Lille — were hit by a wave of arson attacks.

Cases of arson were also observed in parts of central Paris. For instance, a Molotov cocktail consumed four vehicles near a major square, Place de la Republique, while six vehicles went up in smoke in another district.

Despite calls for calm, 918 cars were torched yesterday and 897 the previous day. One American national security expert cynically told this writer that he wouldn't be surprised if the Chirac government surrendered to these homegrown insurgents.

"They [the French] just may hold to their reputation for appeasement and surrender," he said.

Seven police surveillance helicopters armed with high-tech cameras hovered above Paris and other locations in the hopes of pursuing and identifying the mostly young North African and Arab arsonists, who have taken to setting fires then fleeing the scene, frequently on motor bikes.

Special squads of police trained in special operations smashed through doors in a public housing project in the Paris suburb of Les Mureaux where they arrested youths who had tossed heavy objects, such as supermarket trolleys, on police and on a heavily traveled road.

Over 2200 more police officers in riot gear and weaponry were deployed to patrol the streets while over 100 additional firefighters were sent to the Paris region under attack.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who's been the target of a great deal of criticism for calling the rioters "scum" and wishing to take a hard-line on the rioters, visited a police command headquarters in southern Paris overnight. During an impromptu press conference he said that the gangs responsible for the violence have become increasingly organized. They have been seen using mobile telephones to relay police movements and internet blogs to urge unrest elsewhere.

Overall, over 550 insurgents have been arrested since the riots began, some of them minors found carrying gasoline bombs.

The violence erupted on October 27 when two teenagers, one an African immigrant and the other an Arab, were electrocuted while hiding in an electrical substation after fleeing a routine police identity check. The checks are part of France's homeland security strategy. Some left-wing politicians and groups have accused the French police of "Gestapo" tactics when dealing with Muslims, and they've leveled the old standby accusation so familiar to Americans — racial profiling.

So far no one has been killed during the civil unrest, according to the French government, but at two civilians have been badly burned by Molotov cocktails. They were a firefighter and a handicapped woman who was deserted on board and unable to get off an ambushed bus. An elderly man is reported to be in a coma after being struck by an attacker in a housing project.

© Jim Kouri