Paris: France detained 89 Islamic extremists in 2007 and has rounded up 25 people considered a potential threat so far this year, the interior minister said today. Michele Alliot-Marie did not provide any details about those detained but stressed that France remains a prime terrorist target.
"This risk has been here for several years now and it will remain no matter what we do," she told LCI television today. Alliot-Marie said France is "no more ... No less threatened than other big Western nations." She dismissed as "a total illusion" the notion that if France did not have troops in Afghanistan the terror threat would be lower. France currently has some 2,200 troops in the region and is expected to add about 1,000 more shortly.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to officially announce the troop increase during a NATO summit in Romania later this week. Alliot-Marie said France is creating a state-of-the-art domestic hub to lead the fight against terror. France was the victim of Islamic terror attacks in the 1990s and its anti-terrorism police and judges have broad powers. Although France opposed the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, it still regards itself as a terror target.
