Strike on Paris signals Islamic State’s global aspirations

ISIS broadens reach beyond Middle East

The attacks in Paris that killed at least 129 people Friday suggest the Islamic State has broadened its reach beyond the Middle East and is capable of executing devastating attacks in the West.

“It suggests a major shift in the organization’s global strategy,” said William McCants, an analyst at Brookings Institution and author of The ISIS Apocalypse.

French President Francois Hollande blamed the attacks on the terror group and vowed to step up military action against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. France has participated in the U. S.- led air campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

In a statement, the Islamic State claimed responsibility, calling Paris “the capital of prostitution and obscenity” and pledged further attacks. “This attack is the first of the storm,” the statement said. The statement could not be independently verified.

Previous attacks in the West, such as the January attacks that included an assault on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo that left 20 dead including three attackers, appear to have been inspired by the Islamic State.

What distinguishes the Paris attacks is the complexity of the attack, which appears to have involved extensive planning and preparation and suggests they were directed from the group’s central leadership.

Hollande said the slaughter is “an act of war that was prepared, organized, planned from abroad with internal help.”

The attack comes in the wake of at least two other recent bombings in which the Islamic State had reached beyond its traditional stronghold in Syria.

The group claimed responsibility for the downing of the Russian airliner over Sinai last month that killed all 224 passengers and crew aboard. It also claimed to be behind bombings in Beirut on Thursday that killed 43 civilians in a neighborhood controlled by Hezbollah, a Shiite group backed by Iran. The Islamic State is a Sunni organization that considers Shiites the enemy.

Said McCants: “You would guess they had least one more in the bag. My worry is the one more would be in the United States.”

LAURENT DUBRULE, EPA A woman lights a candle near the Bataclan concert venue in Paris on Saturday.