FRANCE/FILE: France and French assets abroad are likely targets for revenge attacks after Osama bin Laden's death

Record ID: 351936

  • Title: FRANCE/FILE: France and French assets abroad are likely targets for revenge attacks after Osama bin Laden's death
  • Date: 5th May 2011
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (MAY 4, 2011) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF FRENCH INTERIOR MINISTRY POLICE GUARD OUTSIDE INTERIOR MINISTRY SIGN FOR INTERIOR MINISTRY VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF INTERIOR MINISTRY FRENCH HEAD OF COUNTER TERRORISM LOIC GARNIER TALKING TO JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRENCH HEAD OF COUNTER TERRORISM LOIC GARNIER SAYING: "France has always been considered an enemy o
  • Embargoed: 20th May 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA8F0GD2H8UACFKSUK23U9Z6VES
  • Story Text: France could face possible terror reprisals after the death of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, a top French security official said on Wednesday (May 4).
    Bin Laden, in one of his last recorded statements last October, had named France as one of worst offenders against Islam in the West and encouraged strikes against French assets anywhere, putting the country on high alert for a terror attack, and his death increases the risk, says Loic Garnier, head of an intelligence gathering unit at France's Interior Ministry.
    "France has always been considered an enemy of al-Qaeda notably because we have troops in Afghanistan, because we support countries that are victims of terrorism in the Sahel band, and historically AQIM has always considered France an enemy. So both our interests abroad and specifically in the Sahel are potential targets, rather than our citizens on the French soil," Garnier said.
    France announced on Tuesday that it was tightening security at home and around embassies, schools and companies abroad to guard against possible reprisals after bin Laden was killed in a raid by U.S. Navy SEALs in Abottabad, Pakistan, but Garnier said the national security alert system would not be changed for the moment.
    "We are not going to change our Vigipirate plans, we can adapt it to some threats we consider more specific depending on the events, and in which case we have asked everyone, not only the Police and the gendarmerie, I mean all the French people to be extremely vigilant," he said.
    France never disbanded its "Vigipirate" anti-terror plan that followed a spate of Paris bombings in 1995 and has kept its terror alert level at "red" -- the third-highest on a four-step scale -- since 2005 bomb attacks in London.
    The plan deploys police and army patrols at potential targets like train stations and airports.
    Police have been extra vigilant since bin Laden recorded a verbal attack in October on France's policy toward Muslims, criticising a ban on full-face veils.
    On Tuesday, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon also said bin Laden's death could trigger revenge attacks and said security would be strengthened around French embassies and companies in high-risk countries.
    The measures, which also apply to international schools, come days after eight French citizens died in a Morocco bomb attack which terror experts say may have been a strike against France.
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