The Case of the 2015 Terrorist Attack in Paris: Bombing Investigation

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Discussion
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Explosive devices are often chosen by terrorists as the main weapon of destruction. There are several reasons why terrorist groups specifically use explosives in their acts. Firstly, explosives offer significant potential for destruction, which guarantees terrorists a higher number of victims and draws more attention to the message the group conveys through the act. Thus, the number of victims will include people in the explosive devices proximity and those harmed by the explosions environmental destruction. Moreover, explosive devices have an easier construction, with most of the components being readily available. In order to investigate the bombing attack and identify the explosives used in the terrorist attack, forensics specialists need to run several tests. This essay will focus on exploring the methods of forensics used to investigate the terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015.

Discussion

The case of the 2015 terrorist attack in Paris is unique because it included three separate explosions in different crowded places. The attack was performed by three groups of suicide bombers and included several targets. According to Ludes (2020), the coordinated attack resulted in 130 dead victims. Thus, the forensic teams mission to identify the terrorists and victims was complicated by the terrorists combination of different attack methods and varying conditions of victims bodies which ranged from complete to disrupted.

The article by Ludes (2020) explains that in order to ensure prompt disaster victim identification, the forensics used postmortem computed tomography. The investigation of victims corpses discovered extreme organ lacerations and identified the presence of foreign bodies, which points to the use of shrapnel load in the explosive device (Ludes, 2020). Thus, the investigation of victims corpses presents one of the forensic tests that can be used to identify the explosives used in the attack.

Next, in one of the several attacks, that took place in the Bataclan Theater, the victims were held hostage by the terrorists. When a police raid tried to stop the hostage-taking and exchanged fire with the terrorists, one of them detonated his explosive vest. Thus, establishing the causes of death of victims from the Bataclan site was necessary for legal reasons. The article by Tracqui et al. (2020) explains that to identify the victims and the causes of their deaths, the forensics used targeted autopsies, external examination, and DNA sampling. Furthermore, the analysis of terrorists bodies identified residue from the use of acetone peroxide in the explosive device (Tracqui et al., 2020).

Thus, created from widely available acetone and hydrogen peroxide, the mixture presents a common explosive used by suicide bombers (Saferstein & Roy, 2020). Therefore, forensics analysis of explosive devices used in a terrorist attack may include not only the investigation of the site and the environmental damage but also the postmortem examination of victims and terrorists bodies.

Conclusion

In conclusion, in the case of the Paris attacks in 2015, the targeted autopsy allowed forensic teams to identify victims and terrorists, determine the causes of their deaths and define the nature of the explosive device. The use of targeted autopsy was chosen to speed up the process of examining the victims bodies and promptly returning them to the grieving relatives. The findings from the investigation determined that the terrorists used a mixture of acetone and hydrogen peroxide as detonators. The investigation also defined that explosive devices used in the attack had shrapnel fragments installed to maximize the number of victims.

References

Ludes B. (2020). Forensic multidisciplinary involvement after terrorist attacks. Forensic Sciences Research, 5(3), 189190. Web.

Saferstein, R., & Roy, T. (2020). Criminalistics: An introduction to forensic science (13^th ed.). Pearson Education (US).

Tracqui, A., Deguette, C., Delabarde, T., Delannoy, Y., Plu, I., Sec, I., Hamza, L., Taccoen, M., & Ludes, B. (2020). An overview of forensic operations performed following the terrorist attacks on November 13, 2015, in Paris. Forensic Sciences Research, 5(3), 202207. Web.

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The Case of the 2015 Terrorist Attack in Paris: Bombing Investigation

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