News Analysis: After Paris attack, U.S. could have a motivated ally in fight against terrorism

This week's vicious attack that killed 12 people at a Paris newspaper's office could bring new French resolve to crush terrorism not only in France but also worldwide. That could help the U.S. in its counterterrorism fight, experts said.

Events in Paris Wednesday grabbed worldwide attention as three gunmen stormed French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo's headquarters, killing a dozen journalists and cartoonists and setting off a massive manhunt for the perpetrators. The terrorists were later killed in a shootout with police on Friday.

While France in December said it would step up operations against the Islamic State (IS), it may now do so with a new resolve and increased public backing. Moreover, as Al-Qaida in Yemen (AQAP) has claimed responsibility for the grizzly Paris attack, France is likely to take the battle to that group as well, experts said.

"This outburst of extremist violence has shaken French politicians as well as the populace at large. Amidst such an atmosphere, France will lash out in some way against AQAP in Yemen and step up security vigilance at home," Wayne White, former deputy director of the State Department's Middle East Intelligence Office, told Xinhua.

While France has conducted air strikes on IS positions, attacks have been somewhat limited and there has been no all-out sense of a French war against IS militants. But that could well change, experts said.

"Given the attacks, a more active French presence in the Middle East and North Africa will certainly be something that the French government will discuss," RAND Corporation associate political scientist Colin P. Clarke told Xinhua.

That could give the U.S. a newly motivated ally in the fight against IS and other terror groups worldwide at a time when Washington is conducting an ongoing air campaign against IS, which has said it would "raise the flag of Allah in the White House."

Indeed, Washington's worst nightmare is another 9/11 style attack, whereby al-Qaida operatives struck New York and Washington and killed nearly 3,000 people, and the U.S. wants to prevent a situation whereby extremists plot an attack on the U.S. from a secure base. Such was the case in the lead up to the 9/11 attacks, when al-Qaida operatives plotted attacks against the U.S. from the safe bases in Afghanistan.

Another fear shared by both countries is that French and American home grown militants could receive training by overseas terror groups and launch attacks against civilians with their newly-found expertise. Indeed, media reports have indicated that there are around 1,000 French citizens and about a dozen Americans fighting with the IS.

On Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama expressed solidarity with the French, describing the European country as America's "oldest ally" while directing "all of our law enforcement and counterintelligence operations to provide whatever support that our ally needs in confronting this challenge."

"I want the people of France to know that the United States stands with you today, stands with you tomorrow," he said in a speech from the U.S. state of Tennessee.

Critics, however, fault Obama for putting terror threats on the back burner and allowing the threat of terror groups such as IS and AQAP to boil over, taking little action to thwart those groups' growth.

Meanwhile, the French are likely to at least maintain, if not increase, the ongoing military presence in the Middle East, in addition to fortifying law enforcement and intelligence assets within France and throughout Europe more broadly, Clarke said.

White said the French also are likely to crack down hard on a variety of domestic militant-leaning Islamic individuals, mosques and organizations because this goes beyond a massive security lapse -- the worse extremist attack in Paris in 20 years.

"These terrorists attacked the heart of France's proud satirical media tradition. It is no wonder President Francois Hollande called it essentially an attack on France itself," White said. Endi