Emmanuel Macron revealed that the same group believed to have been involved in the deadly attack at a Moscow concert venue last week has made “several attempts” in France too.
During an official visit to Cayenne, in French Guiana, the French President said his country’s intelligence had confirmed that “an Islamic State entity fomented this attack and carried it out”.
Speaking on March 25, he added: “This particular group, which is believed to be involved in this attack, has carried out several attempts on our soil in recent months.”
Separately, France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said authorities were foiling attacks “almost every month”.
As Paris is preparing to host millions of people during the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer, France’s Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced more anti-terrorism unit members are going to be mobilised.
A further 4,000 members of the military will be put on standby for the Operation Sentinelle unit which, in charge of handling terrorist threats, already deploys 3,000 soldiers in sensitive areas that could be seen by terrorists as a target.
This came one day after Mr Macron raised the terror alert in France to its highest in the wake of the Crocus City concert hall which killed more than 130 people.
Despite the enormous tensions between the West and Russia, Mr Macron offered for his country and Moscow to “increase cooperation” on counterterrorism.
However, the French President criticised his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for trying to blame the attack on Ukraine without any evidence.
Putin continued to make dangerous allegations against Kyiv three days after the attack, saying on Monday that Russian officials don’t know who ordered the Islamic State to carry out the attack.
Putin claimed the attack was an “act of intimidation” fitting into a larger trend of intimidation from Ukraine.
He added: “This atrocity may be just a link in a whole series of attempts by those who have been at war with our country since 2014 by the hands of the neo-Nazi Kyiv regime … [Those who planned the attack] hoped to sow panic and discord in our society, but they met unity and determination to resist this evil.”
Shortly after news of the attack emerged on Friday, the White House said there was no indication Kyiv was behind it. Washington maintained this on Monday, when White House spokesperson John Kirby said: “There was no linkage to Ukraine … This is just more Kremlin propaganda.”
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, the worst to happen on Russian soil in two decades.
