Two French paratroopers were killed in a drive-by-shooting on Thursday, the second attack in a week that appears to be targeting members of the military. In both incidents, a unidentified gunman wearing a helmet and visor shot the men from a motorcycle in a residential neighborhood near a military base where they were stationed. The first was killed on Sunday in the French city of Toulouse and two more were shot dead in Montauban, about 30 miles to the North on Thursday. (A third soldier was seriously wounded in the second attack, but survived.) There's no way to know conclusively that the incidents are related or what the possible motive could be, but given that all four soldiers belonged to airborne regiments it would seem that the killings are related, or that specific members of the unit are being targeted. Unlike the soldiers shot yesterday, the man killed on Sunday was not wearing his uniform.

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Dashiell Bennett