Manuel Valls also admitted in an interview with the Le Monde daily it was a “failure” that one of the jihadists who attacked a church and killed a priest earlier this week had been released with an electronic tag pending trial.
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One of the two terrorists that attacked a church in Normandy earlier this week, Abdel-Malik Nabir Petitjean, recorded himself before carrying out the terror attack.
Three members of Petijean’s family were taken into custody for questioning, said a source close to the investigation. Two other individuals with suspected ties to the attackers are also being interrogated by police, the source said.
The news of the detention of a close friend of Kermiche, who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in a video, comes at a time when French intelligence services are under close scrutiny.
The attack came as the government was already facing a firestorm of criticism over alleged security failings after the Bastille Day truck massacre in Nice that left 84 people dead two weeks ago.
France had also been alerted by a foreign intelligence service that a suspected militant might be preparing an attack, with a nameless photo of Petitjean circulated among intelligence services.
An Isis supporter who murdered a Catholic priest in France had “no trouble” passing a background check to become an airport baggage handler.
They were shot dead and the hostages were unharmed.
Nicolas Sarkozy, Hollande’s predecessor and potential opponent in next year’s presidential election, has called for stronger steps to track down and detain known Islamist sympathisers.
He goes on to say that French President Francoise Hollande could now see “we are determined men and we have struck your country and other… countries of the allied forces as well”.
Valls said France had a strategy to defeat “Islamic totalitarianism” both in Iraq and Syria where it has launched hundreds of airstrikes as part of a U.S.-led coalition, and at home. But he warned France would be targeted again.
The sources said France’s anti-terrorism police unit UCLAT sent out a note four days before the attack – saying it had received “reliable” information about a person “about to carry out an attack on national territory”. The terrorist, Abdel-Malik Nabir Petitjean, urged all Muslims to “join the fight and destroy France”. You will suffer just as our brothers and sisters are suffering. “We will destroy this country and raise the flag of religion and the word Allah”.
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He adds: “Brothers don’t listen to them, go out, we have what is needed, we have no excuses, go out with a knife, whatever is needed”.
