After the attack in Moscow, France is deploying “exceptional resources” throughout the country, with 4,000 additional soldiers on alert. French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced this on Monday. The branch of the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) said to be involved in the attack in Moscow “has made several attempts” on French territory in recent months.
“The Islamic terrorist threat is real, it is strong and it has never weakened,” the prime minister said during a visit to Paris after the Vigipirate plan was scaled up to the highest level. He said two planned attacks in France have been foiled since the beginning of the year.
According to the Interior Ministry, the first foiled attack dates back to January 10, when a person was arrested in connection with a plan to hit “Jewish targets” or an “LGBT nightclub”. In the second, on March 5, a 62-year-old man was involved in a planned attack on Christian religious buildings.
Attal also said that 45 planned attacks have been foiled and 760 radicalized foreigners have been “deported” since 2017.
Islamic State itself claimed responsibility for the large-scale terror attack in Moscow on Friday evening. According to international terror experts, the Afghan branch of IS (called IS-K; IS-Khorasan) is the main suspect. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin immediately pointed to Ukraine as responsible. On Monday, the Kremlin still refused to comment on the jihadist claim. The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry even called on the United States to “consider” the “claim” that ISIS was behind the attack.
“Cynical and counterproductive”
“It is cynical and counterproductive for Russia itself and for the security of its population to use this context against Ukraine,” the French president also said. Macron pointed out that the terrorist group in question had made “several attempted attacks” on French territory in recent months. That is why the threat level, the so-called Vigipirate Plan, has been scaled up in France after the attack in Moscow
Proposed to work more intensively together
Macron already proposed increased cooperation to Russia, because of the “information and elements that our services have at their disposal, which could be useful to the Russians,” he said.
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