French police have been on high alert since Islamist gunmen left 17 people dead over three days of attacks this January.
French President Francois Hollande announced 7,000 of the 10,000 soldiers deployed on the country’s streets after the Islamist attacks in January will remain permanently.
French police have been on high alert after Islamist gunmen left 17 people dead over three days in attacks on the magazine Charlie Hebdo, a Jewish grocery store and police.
The military patrols will guard sensitive sites throughout France in light of the threat of more attacks. France’s miliary presence in the African Sahel region and the Central African Republic has also raised the domestic threat level.
Although Hollande called the soldiers’ presence a “significant effort … even a very big effort” in light of its stretch on the burgeoning French budget, a French official who requested anonymity said that the presence of soldiers could not stem terror attacks.
Speaking to the AFP, the official said, “The number of targets has exploded. There are two or three thousand, maybe four thousand, people identified or suspected of evil intentions.”
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