French PM Warns of Risk of Chemical, Biological Attack
Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned Thursday that France was at risk of a chemical or biological weapons attack, as lawmakers voted to extend a state of emergency imposed after the Paris carnage.
The fate of the suspected mastermind of Friday's attacks was still uncertain after a huge police raid in a northern district of the French capital on Wednesday that left at least two people dead.
Investigators have yet to confirm whether the body of Abdelhamid Abaaoud was among the rubble of a shattered apartment block after police rained fire and grenades on the building in a seven-hour siege.
Prosecutor Francois Molins said the raid in Saint-Denis had stopped a "new team of terrorists" who were ready to launch another attack in a city still mourning 129 dead, and they believed that senior Islamic State operative Abaaoud was at the building.
At least two other people were killed in the ferocious shootout, including what is thought to be a woman who detonated an explosives vest.
Valls warned of the dangers still faced by France as he opened a parliamentary debate that later saw lawmakers extend an extraordinary package of security measures for three months.
"We must not rule anything out," Valls said. "There is also the risk from chemical or biological weapons."
He called on France's European Union partners to urgently adopt measures to share airline passenger information.
"More than ever, it's time for Europe to adopt the text... to guarantee the traceability of movements, including within the union. It's a condition of our collective security," he said.
The state of emergency will be in place for three months from November 26 after lawmakers approved the extension.
- Raids in Belgium -At least 129 people were killed in the shootings and suicide bombings that targeted a concert hall, bars and restaurants and the Stade de France national stadium, Europe's second deadliest terror attack in history.
As the Paris probe widened to countries across Europe, Belgian police staged six raids in the Brussels area linked to a suicide bomber who blew himself outside the French stadium, prosecutors said.
Italy was also looking for five suspects after an FBI tip-off about possible jihadist attacks on landmark sites including St Peter's cathedral in the Vatican, the foreign minister said.
Under one of the measures being adopted in France, police officers will be allowed to carry weapons when they are off duty.
Officers will be allowed to use their guns in the event of an attack providing they wear a police armband to avoid "any confusion", according to a directive seen by Agence France Presse.
Eight suspects were arrested in the massive Saint-Denis raid, but neither Abaaoud, the Belgian suspected of orchestrating the Paris attacks, nor another key suspect, Salah Abdeslam, were among them.
Abdeslam is thought to be one of the only surviving members of the gang. His suicide-bomber brother Brahim Abdeslam blew himself up in a cafe but did not kill anyone else.
As international efforts to fight the Islamic State group stepped up, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Russia was "sincere" in wanting to cooperate against IS in Syria.
"There is an opening, so to speak, with the Russians. We think they are sincere and we must bring together all our forces," he told France Inter radio.
But world powers remain deeply divided over the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has strong backing from Moscow.
US President Barack Obama said Thursday that Syria's brutal civil war could not end while Assad remained in power.
- U.S. warning -
U.S. intelligence meanwhile published a report showing it warned in May that IS was capable of carrying out the kind of large-scale coordinated attacks seen in Paris.
The assessment from the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, in coordination with the FBI, specifically refers to Abaaoud as a ringleader of Belgian plotters and warned Europe was more at risk of attack than the United States.
Abaaoud was previously thought to be in Syria after fleeing raids in his native Belgium earlier this year.
IS released a new video threatening New York, and specifically Times Square, although police said there was no "current and specific" threat.
Hours after President Francois Hollande had urged the nation not to resort to anti-Muslim or anti-Semitic reprisals in the wake of the attacks, a Jewish teacher was stabbed and wounded in Marseille by three people shouting anti-Semitic obscenities and expressing support for IS.
France is coming to terms with being attacked for a second time in less than year. In January, jihadist gunmen killed 17 people at Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, on the streets and in a Jewish supermarket.
Citing security fears, the government has cancelled two mass rallies scheduled for November 29 and December 12 -- the days before and after a key UN climate summit to be held outside Paris.
Source: Agence France Presse
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