France began hunting for possible accomplices in the worst terror attacks in Paris in more the half a century as a seven-minute video emerged with one of the gunmen declaring allegiance to the Islamic State.
Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, said 10,000 military personnel will be sent to defend “sensitive” sites, after his meeting this morning with President Francois Hollande, Prime Minister Manuel Valls, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and representative of the military chiefs of staff. France maintained the highest level of anti-terrorist alert as Valls said special forces will patrol Jewish schools.
“We’re making war against terrorism, against jihadism and against radical Islamism,” Valls said in an interview on RMC Radio. He told a Paris rally yesterday that the first goal is to arrest possible accomplices in the attacks.
The video with Amedy Coulibaly, one of the three gunmen, carried a banner detailing the killing of four people at a kosher grocery where he was shot dead by the police, showing it had been edited and posted after his death. The video and media reports of a stash of weapons, ISIS flags and cash found in an apartment near Paris rented by Coulibaly on Jan. 4 have raised concerns about a wider network of terrorists.
The three attacks in Paris, including on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and the grocery store, claimed 17 victims last week. They revived concern France isn’t keeping close enough tabs on suspected Islamic extremists.
Fourth Suspect
Police are hunting those who may have funded, supported or sheltered brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, who killed 12 people in the assault on Charlie Hebdo, and Coulibaly, who fatally shot a police officer in a Paris suburb Jan. 8 and then killed the four hostages at the grocery store the next day.
Coulibaly said in an interview with BFM Television during the hostage taking that the attacks were coordinated. The three were killed by police forces in two Jan. 9 assaults.
A fourth suspect fled France days before the murderous spree, police said. The disclosure that Hayat Boumeddiene, believed to be the wife of the hostage-taker at the kosher grocery, was in Syria when police were hunting her may deepen questions over possible intelligence failures. Valls noted “clear flaws” in security and intelligence services.
Biggest Rally
European Union interior ministers, meeting yesterday in Paris, agreed to increase intelligence sharing on individuals and to tighten the EU’s external borders to stem the flow of terrorists between Europe and Syria. Some also supported more checks on the EU’s internal borders.
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron plans to talk today with his country’s intelligence chiefs, after French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve called for a more coordinated effort to fight Islamist extremism and additional help from Internet companies to counter terrorist propaganda.
Yesterday, the largest crowd in French history -- more than 3.7 million strong -- turned out for rallies across the country, joined in Paris by world leaders including Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, to mark nation’s worst terror attack in more than half a century.
In the video, Coulibaly claimed he funded the Kouachi brothers with “several thousands euros” to help them prepare their attack.
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