26-3-2024 (PARIS) President Emmanuel Macron declared on Monday that the gunmen behind the horrific concert hall attack in Moscow that left 137 dead were part of an Islamic State cell responsible for recent foiled plots against France itself.
Citing this purported IS connection, the French government has now elevated its national security threat level to the highest tier, with thousands more soldiers set to reinforce protection of sensitive sites like schools across the country.
“This attack was claimed by Islamic State,” Macron told reporters, saying intelligence showed “it was an entity of IS which instigated and carried out this attack.”
The same IS branch “had over the past months carried out several (attack) attempts on our soil,” Macron added, with Prime Minister Gabriel Attal later specifying one such disrupted plot targeted the eastern city of Strasbourg.
“The claim of responsibility for the (Moscow) attack by a branch of Islamic State that planned attacks in European countries including France prompted us to increase the Vigipirate (security threat assessment) to its highest level,” Attal explained from a Paris train station.
Some 3,000 soldiers currently make up the “Sentinelle” force patrolling transport hubs, places of worship, schools and other key locations, with 4,000 more now being placed on standby according to the premier.
“We will deploy exceptional means everywhere on (French) territory,” Attal stated.
France has managed to thwart two would-be militant strikes already in 2023, he revealed, after suffering a string of high-profile Islamist attacks over the past decade – the deadliest the 2015 massacres at the Bataclan concert venue and Parisian cafes and bars.
“It (the Moscow concert hall attack) brings to mind the Bataclan years, so yes, it’s something that has left a mark in us forever,” said local IT worker Raffele Alegretti, explaining the latest jitters.
While Russia has sought to implicate Ukraine in Friday’s IS-claimed concert attack that also saw 250 taken hostage, Macron blasted such assertions as “cynical and counterproductive”.
The French leader said he had offered increased intelligence cooperation with Moscow “so that we continue to fight effectively against these groups which are targeting several countries.”
But Russian President Vladimir Putin has avoided publicly acknowledging an IS role, instead accusing “the Ukrainian side” of being prepared to help the Moscow gunmen flee across the border amid the two nations’ ongoing war.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy slammed Putin’s allegation as a “deliberate attempt” to deflect blame for failing to prevent the deadly assault.
With echoes of France’s own anguished experience combating militant violence at home, the Kremlin concert hall carnage has clearly rattled Paris prompting an immediate bolstering of security precautions – though authorities insist any substantive IS threat will be vigorously confronted.
