French soldier stabbed in Paris -a jihadi attack?

A French soldier was stabbed in the throat in a busy commercial district outside Paris today. The soldier was on patrol, in uniform, along with two other men as part of France's Vigipirate anti-terrorist surveillance plan. The wound is reported to be serious but not life-threatening.

The fact that his attacker has been described as a bearded man of North-African origin (wearing what has been described as a "white Arab-style tunic") has raised comparisons with the jihadi murder of a British soldier in London earlier this week. Although the French government has thus far declined to comment officially on the nature of the attack, sources in side the Paris prosecutors office have been reported that the attack is being treated as a "terrorist incident" and is therefore being handled by the anti-terrorist branch of the office.

These events come a little over a year after French-Algerian jihadi murdered seven people in Toulouse and Montauban, including three French soldiers and a parent and three children at a Jewish school. The terrorist in question is believed to have been motivated, in part at least, by the participation of French soldiers NATO operations in Afghanistan. As of of November last year, France's combat troops have been withdrawn from Afghanistan (though the logistical contingent remains), but French troops troops are currently involved in anti-jihadi operations in Mali and Niger.

The fact that, fortunately, the French soldier survived the attack seems to indicate the amateur nature of the terrorist attack, if that is what it was. The perpetrator is unlikely to have been linked to any meaningful jihadi network or organisation which would have flagged him to French security services as a threat. This is a distinct parallel with the killers of the British soldier earlier this week, the Boston bombers earlier this year, and the jihadi who perpetrated the Toulouse and Mountauban attacks last year. Instances of "do-it-yourself jihadis" committing attacks in the West seem to be increasing in their frequency.