© Noelle Herrenschmidt via APThis courtroom sketch shows key defendant Salah Abdeslam, in the special courtroom built for the 2015 attacks trial, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021 in Paris. The trial of 20 men accused in the Islamic State group's coordinated attacks on Paris in 2015 that transformed France opened Wednesday in a custom-built complex embedded within a 13th-century courthouse.
The key defendant in the 2015 Paris attacks trial said Wednesday that the coordinated killings
were retaliation for French airstrikes on the Islamic State group, calling the deaths of 130 innocent people "nothing personal" as he acknowledged his role for the first time.
Salah Abdeslam, who wore all black and declined to remove his mask as he spoke in a custom-built courtroom,
has been silent throughout the investigation. Observers were waiting to see if he would offer any details during the trial.
Nine Islamic State group gunmen and suicide bombers struck within minutes of one another at several locations around Paris on Nov. 13, 2015, targeting fans at the national soccer stadium and cafe-goers and ending with a bloodbath inside the Bataclan concert hall. It was the deadliest violence to strike France since World War II and among the worst terror attacks to hit the West, shaking the country's sense of security and rewriting its politics.
Abdeslam is the only survivor of that cell, most of whose members were French or Belgian.
After his suicide vest malfunctioned on the night of the attacks, he fled to his hometown of Brussels.On Wednesday, a screen in the courtroom showed a photo of the car Abdeslam abandoned in northern Paris after he dropped off the three suicide bombers at the national stadium. Abdeslam's target was unclear, but when Islamic State claimed responsibility the next day, the statement alluded to an attack in the neighborhood where he left the car that never took place.
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