Paris attack: Isis has created a new kind of warfare

For the first time urban terrorism, guerrilla tactics and conventional fighting have been combined in a lethal blend

The Islamic State (Isis) has always massacred civilians in large numbers to show its strength and instil fear in its opponents. In the West, people notice these atrocities only when they take place on their own streets, though Isis suicide bombers killed 43 people in Beirut on 12 November and 26 more in Baghdad on 13 November. These attacks are almost impossible to stop because they are directed against civilians, who cannot all be defended, and the bombers are willing to die in order to destroy their targets.

Isis has claimed the Paris attacks, saying that France was targeted because of its air strikes in Syria. The use of eight suicide bombers and gunmen in a national capital, guaranteeing maximum coverage by the media, has all the hallmarks of an Isis operation. One ominous difference from the killings earlier in the year atCharlie Hebdo magazine and in a Jewish supermarket, is that attacks, presumably because of Isis involvement, are getting more sophisticated and better planned. Recruiting, arming, coordinating and keeping hidden the Paris killers until the last moment implies good organisation. The same was true of the smuggling of a bomb on to the Russian plane before it left the ground at Sharm al-Sheikh on 30 October. 

History is replete with governments and want to be leaders using various forms of armed conflict against civilian populations.  The German Buzz bombs, the firebombing of  Dresden and Tokyo and use of napalm, agent orange in Vietnam and the firing of Scud missiles at Israel during the first Gulf War were all used as blunt instruments of war to either inflict mass casualties or used as  psychology warfare instil  fear, intimidate and frighten non combatants.  Another form of terrorism is the use of security services to disappear or put on trial those who would stand against those in power.  

The difference is that it's a terrorist group using these tactics rather than a recognized nation state.