Europe calls for tougher response
‘It is necessary to move fast and hard,’ French interior minister says
Responding to rising threats across Europe, France on Thursday sought to extend a sweeping state of emergency for three months, as Belgium proposed tough new measures to detain and monitor suspects who support jihadist groups.
The calls for a crackdown came as French prosecutors confirmed Thursday that the ringleader of the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris was killed in a massive pre-dawn police raid Wednesday. The death of Abdelhamid Abaaoud did little to calm European unease about the spectre of more attacks.
In Italy, officials said the FBI had warned of specific threats in Vatican City, Rome and Milan.
In an ominous address — echoing the debate in the U.S. Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said authorities must imagine that the grimmest threats are possible.
“We know and bear in mind that there is also a risk of chemical or biological weapons,” Valls told parliament during debate on extending the country’s state of emergency. The temporary measure was enacted immediately following Friday’s deadly multipronged attacks on Paris that killed at least 129 people and wounded more than 350.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve warned that now “it is necessary to move fast and hard.”
He said that “all Europe must work together to defeat terrorism” and called for an emergency meeting of the continent’s interior ministers on Friday.
Some European leaders seemed prepared to sweep aside cherished traditions that protect rights to privacy and civil liberties.
In Belgium, Prime Minister Charles Michel pressed parliament to pass tough new measures to imprison citizens returning home from fighting in Syria and to broaden law enforcement’s ability to tap phones and detain suspects for three days without charges. He called for shutting down websites that advocate Islamic holy war.
The moves came as fears ratcheted up across Europe of more hidden terror cells preparing similar strikes.
Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Italian security forces were “working to identify five people” who may be planning attacks on St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, Milan’s Duomo or the La Scala opera house.
The U.S. State Department issued a travel warning to American citizens travelling in Italy, calling those landmarks “potential targets” but also flagging possible threats to “churches, synagogues, restaurants, theatres and hotels” in Rome and Milan.
The three-month extension of emergency laws grants the French government powers to conduct stops and searches, ban large gatherings in public places and put suspected extremists under house arrest.
After approval in the National Assembly, the measure now goes to the French Senate for expected final backing Friday.
In Belgium, police searched at least eight homes in connection with Bilal Hadfi, 20, one of the suicide bombers in the Paris attacks, and Salah Abdelslam, 26, a fugitive believed to have been involved in the attacks but who slipped away amid the chaos.
Nine people were arrested, including friends and family of Hadfi, who blew himself up outside the Stade de France stadium north of Paris during a soccer match between France and Germany. He and six other assailants died in the series of attacks on multiple targets.
Michel, the Belgian prime minister, asked parliament for new measures that would require immediate jailing for citizens returning from presumed militant activity in Syria, where the Islamic State has some of its main strongholds. Under the request, those on terrorist watch lists — about 800 residents in Belgium currently — would be forced to wear ankle bracelets to track their movements.
Further proposed measures called for the deployment of 300 troops and more leeway in conducting house raids. Michel also called for stronger border controls — an appeal that highlights wider debates across the European Union on how to reconcile its policies of control-free travel with demands to combat the Islamic State and other militant factions.
The European Union planned an extraordinary meeting Friday to focus on how to stem the traffic in firearms, much of it coming from the formerly conflict-ridden Balkans, and on setting common standards for deactivating old guns.
EU officials will also discuss ways to enable border police to check passports against a police database.
We know and bear in mind that there is also a risk of chemical or biological weapons.