1995 Paris Métro and RER bombings

The 1995 bombings in France were carried out by the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), who were broadening the Algerian Civil War to France. In total, these attacks killed eight and injured more than 100 people. The assassination of Abdelbaki Sahraoui, a co-founder of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) who opposed attacks in France, was a prelude of this extension of the Islamists' terrorist campaign to France.

Several bombings
On 25 July 1995, a gas bottle exploded in the Saint-Michel station of line B of the RER (Paris regional train network). The Place Saint-Michel, the bridges and surrounding streets are full of emergency vehicles. The Parvis Notre-Dame becomes a helicopter runway while a nearby pub, Le depart Saint-Michel, is used as a field hospital.

At 8pm, at the beginning of the France 2 news, the announcer states that 4 people died and another 40 got injured in a « mysterious explosion ». At that time, no official sources had confirmed that it was a terrorist attack.

The thesis of it being a terrorist attack would be confirmed later on, as the final outcome is said to be 8 deaths and 117 injured.

On 17 August, a second bomb, hidden in a garbage can, at the Arc de Triomphe wounded 16 people. The bomb was composed of a gas bottle with nails.

On 26 August, a huge bomb was found on the railroad tracks of a high-speed rail line near Lyon. It was supposed to explode when the train would pass by. Fingerprints of Khaled Kelkal and Boualem Bensaïd are found on the bomb. A leader of the group, Khaled Kelkal is quickly identified and his picture appears all over France.

He was identified through fingerprints left on unexploded bombs. He was killed on 29 September by members of the French EPIGN gendarmerie unit when resisting arrest in hills near Lyon.

Yet the attacks continued. On 6 October, day of Khaled Kelkal’s funeral, another gas bottle exploded in station Maison Blanche of the Paris Métro, wounding 12. Boualem Bensaïd’s fingerprints would be found again on the bomb. The next day, a statement from one of the GIA’s commanders Djamel Zitouni, written on 23 September, arrives at the Reuters press agency in Cairo. He officially claims the « Jihad », the « military strikes at the heart of France » in order to punish its support to the Algiers’ government. A letter was also sent to Jacques Chirac through the French Embassy in Algiers, urging him to convert to Islam.

On 17 October, a gas bottle exploded between the Musée d'Orsay and Saint-Michel – Notre-Dame stations of RER Line C, wounding 29. Investigators would find a transportation card on Smaïn Aït Ali Belkacem used a few minutes before the attack in a nearby subway station.

Additional bombs were found and cleared during morning searches of Metro and RER stations, without any casualties. They were often found in restrooms. Increased security mandated the removal of all public trash receptacles, in order to prevent the possibility of bombs being hidden within.

Arrests and trials
Members of the Armed Islamic Group and the "Kelkal Group" have since been prosecuted for various charges. A number of suspects fled to the United Kingdom. Extradition proceedings against suspect Rachid Ramda started in 1995 and went on for nearly ten years, during which Ramda remained detained in London's Belmarsh Prison. Ramda was eventually extradited to France on December 1, 2005, in connection with the bombings. On 26 October 2007, Ramda was sentenced to life in prison for financing the attacks.

According to the FBI terrorism consultant Evan Kohlmann, part of the money used to finance the bombings came from people connected to the Brandbergen Mosque in Haninge, Sweden.

Aftermath
Algeria-France relations were heavily affected by this events. Chirac refuses to welcome the Algerian ministers, openly saying that the GIA could have possibly been manipulated by the Algerian secret services.

The legislation on terrorism in France is reinforced with a new law in 1996 allowing the police forces to do searches even at night. . Paris also suspends the Schengen Acquis and only stops the border controls in March 1996.

Vigipirate, activated in September 1995, is still in place in 2017. The crisis lessens up with Lionel Jospin becoming prime minister in 1997 and Abdelaziz Bouteflika becoming the new Algerian president.