France’s interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Islamic terrorists planned to attack another concert in Paris and carry out a mass killing in the city streets. Cazeneuve revealed the information while defending the government’s decision to continue for there more months the state of emergency imposed after the 13 November attacks.
The Local reports that the targets Cazeneuve referred to were similar to the targets which ISIS terrorists attacks with suicide bombs and gun fire. The attacks left 132 people dead, including eighty-nine at the Bataclan music hall.
Cazeneuve told France 5 television that since spring 2015, France’s intelligence services had foiled eleven terrorist attacks, some of which ordered and planned by the ISIS terrorists 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 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.
The French police is still looking for four suspects believe to have been involved in the November attacks.
Last week ISIS released a video showing the jihadists believed to have carried out the Paris attacks. In the video, the group threatens other “coalition” countries, including Britain.
The men, speaking in French and Arabic, addressed their message to “all the countries taking part in the coalition” which has been carrying out airstrikes against the group in Syria and Iraq since September 2014.
The video shows a picture of the British prime minister, David Cameron, accompanied by 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 a 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.
The government imposed a state of emergency after the November attacks, but the move has been criticized by civil liberties groups. UN civil rights experts said the emergency measures go too far.
The emergency decree is due to expire on 26 February, but last week the Elysée Palace announced it would seek to extend it for another three months.
