France becomes target of frequent terrorist attacks

France has become a major target of terrorist attacks in 2015.

The Friday night mayhem killed at least 127 people and constituted the worst carnage in France since World War II, reported Xinhua.

On January 7, two gunmen stormed the office of Paris-based Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, which published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, and shot dead 12 people.

An apparent associate of the shooters killed a police officer and four hostages held at a kosher market in the following two days.

The Charlie Hebdo shooters claimed links to extremists in Yemen while the kosher market attacker had ties with the Islamic State.

On June 26, two men rammed a car into the gas containers of a US gas company in southeast France's Isere, triggering an explosion. In addition to at least two wounded people, a decapitated body was found at the site with an IS flag aside.

The French interior ministry later announced that the suspect arrested in connection with the attack, named Yassin Salhi, had been on watch list for radicalisation in 2006, and that he had links with Islamist movements.

On August 21, an armed man opened fire against passengers of a Thalys high-speed train between Amsterdam and Paris, wounding three before being arrested.