Three French soldiers who were conducting a patrol outside a Jewish center in the southern city of Nice as part of the country's recently upgraded counter-terrorism campaign were attacked by a man wielding a knife on Tuesday.

AFP reports that two of the soldiers were wounded on the face and arm, and their lives are not in danger, while French police union official Sarah Baron said the precise extent of the wounds are not yet clear.

The two wounded officers were being treated by medical personnel at the scene, and anti-terrorist prosecutors in Paris have taken charge of the investigation, a judicial source told AFP.

The stabber was arrested, but two associates of his are thought to have escaped after the attack occurred in the center of the city, outside the Consistoire Israélite de Nice Jewish organization, Baron told The Associated Press. The building also houses a Jewish radio station, Radio Shalom, and a Jewish association.

Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi was quoted saying the knife-wielding assailant had an identity card with the name Moussa Coulibaly. According to an official he was aged around 30, with a record of theft and assault. Reportedly he is Muslim.

The last name Coulibaly, a relatively common name for immigrant families from Mali, is the same as that of Amedy Coulibaly, who murdered four Jews while holding a kosher supermarket in Paris hostage last month after shooting a policewoman to death the day before; it is not yet clear if he is related.

French police later said the attacker pulled a knife at least 20 centimeters (8 inches) long out of a bag before attacking the soldiers. He first wounded one soldier on the chin, then slashed another on the cheek and the third on the forearm, before being arrested by riot police stationed near the Jewish community center.

A manager at the center confirmed soldiers posted at the building were attacked, but due to it occurring around lunchtime no one was inside the office at the time.

Earlier on Tuesday French police arrested eight people suspected of involvement in a network that sent Muslim terrorists to Syria to wage jihad. The arrests centered around Paris and the southeastern city of Lyon.

Some 1,400 people living in France have either joined the jihadist terror groups in Syria and Iraq or are planning to, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said last month.

France has launched several raids targeting alleged jihadists after a trio of Islamist gunmen murdered 17 people around Paris in a three-day rampage in January, including the hostage crisis at a kosher supermarket in which four Jews were murdered.

Since then France has dispatched its army to defend the nation, with Jewish institutions receiving particular attention as prime targets for Muslim terrorists.

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French "Anti-Terror" Unit Carved Up By Knife Wielding Perp, Believed Related To French Jewish Market Jihadist Amedy Coulibaly

February 3, 2015 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org – Two French "soldiers" were injured today by a knife wielding Muslim. The 3-man anti-terror guard was posted outside of a Jewish community center in the city of Nice.

Initially the attacker's first name, Mousa, was all that was made available by the way of identification by French LE. Later he was identified as Mousa Coulibaly and is believed to be related to the Muslim terrorist [Amedy Coulibaly] who attacked the Paris Jewish market after the January 7 Charlie Hebdo massacre. [see, Levi Winchester, Police investigating link between man who knifed soldiers in France and Amedy Coulibaly, UK Express]

The jihadist had, just before the incident, been cited for taking public transportation without a ticket. Stopped at the turnstile, Mousa refused to produce identification.

What is puzzling about this event is how a man could approach, let alone attack three armed soldiers apparently on an anti-terror detail and why it took bystanders to finally subdue the perp.

Apparently this isn't Coulibaly's first brush with the French LE community and his behavior prior to the violent assault appears to be the MO of an ISIS wannabe:

"The person responsible, who is in his thirties and from the Paris region, is known to police," Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said. According to police, the man had been questioned by French security services after he travelled to Turkey on a one-way ticket in late January and was intercepted and flown back to Nice by Turkish authorities." [source, Two French soldiers wounded in knife attack in Nice, Reuters]

What conclusion should French jihadists draw from this incident?

If the best and brightest of the country's anti-terror forces are incapable of stopping a simple assault by a man with a knife, there is little to prevent further attacks by Islamic fanatics. As a matter of fact the message of weakness being sent is one of provocation not steadfastness.

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http://www.pipelinenews.org/2015/feb/04/French-quotAnti-Terror-quot-Unit-Carved-Up.html