June 2017 Champs-Élysées car ramming attack

2017 Champs-Élysées attack
Location	Champs-Élysées, Paris
Date	19 June 2017 3:40pm
Target	National Gendarmerie
Attack type	Hit and run attack
Weapons	Car
Deaths	1 (attacker)
Injured	0
Perpetrator	Djaziri Adam Lotfi

On 19 June 2017, the driver of a car containing guns and explosives rammed the car into a Gendarmerie vehicle on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, France. He was killed and was later identified as Djaziri Adam Lotfi.

Before beginning the attack, Djaziri pledged his support to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Background

Jihadists have specifically targeted policemen, gendarmes and soldiers providing security in France, with at least 12 such targeted attacks on police/soldiers between 2012 and 2017. ISIS has encouraged the targeting of police and soldiers on the grounds that they represent the state. The series includes the 2016 Magnanville stabbing, Louvre machete attack, the 2017 Orly airport attack, the 2017 Notre Dame attack, and the April 2017 shooting of Paris police officers. Le Monde reported that since January 2015, terrorist attacks in France have left 239 dead.

Incident

At 3:40 pm local time in Paris a convoy of Gendarmerie vans was driving up the Champs-Élysées when someone rammed his Renault Mégane into the lead vehicle in the Gendarmerie convoy. The Renault immediately caught fire. The car contained an AK-47 assault rifle, handguns, and a gas canister. The attack vehicle also contained a quantity of explosives sufficient to "blow this car up." The attacker was killed and the incident is under investigation as possible terrorism. The Department of Interior stated that explosives have been found in his car. The French Minister of the Home Office, Gérard Collomb, spoke of a planned attack. The attacker was known by the police.

Perpetrator

The attacker was identified as Djaziri Adam Lotfi (31), (alt. Dzaziri) a resident of the northwestern Paris suburb of Argenteuil. He was a scion of a "Salafist family". The perpetrator had been included on the "S" file, i.e., was a "an individual considered to be a serious threat to national security." The reason for his inclusion on the fiche S was his belonging to the "radical islamist movement". He was known by the police. Even though he was considered dangerous, he got a weapon license.

The attacker had obtained a legal permit to own a gun; authorities were unable ot explain why the permit had not been withdrawn when was added to the terrorism watch list. On the day following the attack, four relatives of the driver were taken into police custody.

On the day of the attack, perpetrator mailed letters pledging his allegiance to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Claim of responsibility

On 13 July 2017, The Islamic State claimed responsibility for this attack, on a list of other attacks it carried on during the holy month of Ramadan.

External links

• Washington Post video