The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

PM: France must monitor 3,000 with militant links

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Wednesday that the authorities have to monitor nearly 3,000 people involved in “terrorist networks”, as he unveiled measures to combat militancy after the Paris attacks.

He said the number of people linked to networks in Iraq and Syria had jumped 130 percent in the past year.

Valls also announced 2,680 new jobs and spending of 425 million euros ($490 million) to boost the fight against extremism.

The attacks two weeks ago — the worst on French soil in decades — left 17 people dead and put Europe on high alert, with a wave of police raids, investigations and extraditions taking place across the jittery continent.

“The number one priority, the number one requirement, is to further reinforce the human and technical resources of intelligence services,” Valls said.

Of the new jobs announced, 1,400 will be in the police, mostly in intelligence, he added.

Valls also said that 60 extra Muslim clerics would be recruited on top of the 182 who already work in prisons, where two of the three attackers are thought to have been radicalized.

 

AFP