Terror suspect says Paris attacks were payback for airstrikes on Islamic State

September 16, 2021

(CN) — The only survivor of an Islamic State group that killed 130 people in Paris said on Wednesday the coordinated attacks were to avenge women and children being bombed by French airplanes in Syria.

“We fought France, we attacked France, we targeted the civilian population. It was nothing personal against them,” Abdeslam said, according to news reports. “We came to kill French civilians so that you would suffer as the men, women and children killed by French bombs in Syria were suffering.”

“I know my statement may be shocking, but it is not to dig the knife deeper in the wound but to be sincere towards those who are suffering immeasurable grief,” he said, according to a translation by the Associated Press.

This was the first time the judges allowed Salah Abdeslam to speak at a trial where he and 19 other men face sentences that range from 20 years to life in prison for their involvement in the attacks.