French Police Foiled another Paris Terror Attack, Says Minister
- Other Media news
- January, 25, 2016 - 17:05
The targets revealed by Bernard Cazeneuve were similar to the series of shootings and suicide bombings across the French capital that left 130 peple dead, including 89 at the Bataclan music venue.
He told France 5 television that since last spring the country’s intelligence services had last year foiled 11 terrorist attacks, some of which had been ordered by the Daesh (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) attackers behind the 13 November atrocities.
Cazeneuve said the state of emergency was “necessary ... but should remain temporary”. It would, however, remain “as long as there is an imminent danger,” The Guardian reports.
“The state of emergency is a tool, among others ... and it’s not because we are extending it that it will be extended forever. Let me remind you that not all the terrorists who carried out the 13 November attacks were caught,” he said.
Four suspects believe to have been involved in the November attacks or aided the attackers are still being hunted by police.
Cazeneuve’s comments came as Daesh released a video showing the terrorists believed to have carried out the Paris attacks. In the film, the group threatens other “coalition” countries, including Britain.
The video was uploaded to a recognised Daesh channel and purports to show some of the Paris attackers wearing camouflage fatigues while training in an unknown desert location.
The men, speaking in French and Arabic, addressed their message to “all the countries taking part in the coalition” that has been carrying out airstrikes against the group in Syria and Iraq since September 2014.
A picture of the British prime minister, David Cameron, was shown alongside the words “whoever stands in the ranks of kufr (unbelievers) will be a target for our swords”. The video described the nine Paris attackers as “lions” who “brought France to its knees”.
The French president, François Hollande, on an official visit to India, said the country would not be intimidated.
“Nothing will deter us, no threat will make France waver in the fight against terrorism,” Hollande told reporters in Delhi.