French soldier attacked near Paris

The Associated Press reports that a 23-year-old French soldier was stabbed in the throat in a shopping area just outside of Paris;

President Francois Hollande said the identity of the attacker was unknown and cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the assault on the uniformed soldier in the La Defense shopping area. The life of the 23-year-old soldier was not in danger, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The rest of the article is about Drummer Rigsby who was killed by jihadists near London. So, we shouldn’t jump to conclusions, but AP has made the leap.

Reuters says that he was on patrol;

The soldier was patrolling in uniform with two other men as part of France’s Vigipirate anti-terrorist surveillance plan when he was approached from behind around 1800 p.m. and stabbed in the neck with a knife or a box-cutter.

Hollande, in the Ethiopian city of Addis Ababa, commented on the stabbing to say that the man was still on the run and police were exploring all leads.

“We still don’t know the exact circumstances of the attack or the identity of the attacker, but we are exploring all options,” Hollande told journalists.

Pierre-Andre Peyvel, police prefect for the Hauts-de-Seine area, said the soldier had lost a considerable amount of blood but would survive, and was being treated in a nearby military hospital.

“The wound appears to be quite serious, but it’s not life-threatening,” he told iTele news television.

French daily Le Parisien cited a police source as saying the suspected attacker was a bearded man of North African origin about 30 years old, and was wearing an Arab-style garment under his jacket.

However, Peyvel declined to confirm or deny that description and said further details about the attacker’s identity would be forthcoming.

So we hope the young soldier survives and that the perp is caught so we can clear this up.

Category: Terror War