The risk of terror attacks in France remains extremely high, said Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin during a visit to the country’s internal security service, La Direction générale de la sécurité intérieure (DGSI) on Monday, reported AFP.
“The risk of terror of Sunni origin is the main threat that our country is facing," said the Minister, vowing a fight "without let-up".
Darmanin said that 8,132 individuals had been registered on France's database of suspected Islamist radicals, deemed a potential security threat.
Wave of Attacks in France
The French Interior Minister’s comments come as 14 alleged accomplices in the 2015 jihadist attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly and the Hyper Cacher Jewish supermarket are set to face a trial on Wednesday.
The gun rampage unleashed by brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi at the offices of the weekly on 7 January, 2015 left 12 people dead, including celebrated French cartoonists.
Two days after the attack the Kouachi brothers were shot dead by police in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele, outside Paris.
An associate of the brothers, Amedy Coulibaly, killed a policewoman and four people during a hostage-taking attack a day later, at the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket outside Paris. Coulibaly was also killed in shootouts with police.
It is the suspected accomplices of these killed perpetrators that are set to face justice for allegedly providing them with various degrees of logistical support. The trial had been delayed for several months due to the coronavirus epidemic.
During the court proceedings in Paris, set to continue until 10 November, three of the 14 suspects - Hayat Boumedienne, the partner of Coulibaly, and Belhoucine brothers Mohamed and Mehdi - are being tried in absentia.
They are reported to have died after travelling to an area of northern Syria and Iraq under Daesh control at the time.
The suspects remain subject to arrest warrants as their deaths have not been confirmed.
Those attacks set off a spiral of violence claimed by Daesh that left 258 people dead.
The biggest attack took place in November 2015 in which 129 people were murdered.
The epicenter of the six coordinated attacks, targeting also restaurants and the national stadium, was the Bataclan Theatre in Paris, where 82 out of a total of more than 128 people were murdered.
The terrorists, wearing suicide vests, had wreaked havoc on the city, indiscriminately gunning down victims at bars and restaurants, and then storming the Bataclan concert hall during a show by American rock group Eagles of Death Metal.
As Daesh claimed responsibility for the attacks, its online statement made reference to French air strikes on the terrorist group in Syria.
*Daesh, also known as IS/ Islamic State/ ISIS/ ISIL, is a terrorist group, banned in Russia
