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                     France: 5 Attacks Foiled Since January

   by VOA News

   French police have thwarted five attacks since a January assault on the
   offices of Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish grocery by Islamic extremist
   gunmen left 20 people dead, including the attackers, Prime Minster
   Manuel Valls said Thursday.

   "Never has the threat been so high," Valls told France Inter radio,
   noting the fact that hundreds of French nationals were now in Syria
   where they risked being radicalized.

   Valls was speaking a day after authorities said they had arrested a
   24-year-old Algerian national in Paris suspected of the murder of a
   woman at the weekend and an aborted plan to launch an armed attack on
   at least one church.

   Authorities say the 24-year-old Algerian arrested in Paris on Sunday
   was targeting one or more churches and was linked to the shooting death
   of a young woman.

   The Islamic extremist was prevented from opening fire on churchgoers
   only because he accidentally shot himself in the leg, French officials
   said Wednesday.

   The computer science student had been flagged as a security risk this
   year and in 2014. He was also suspected in the death of a young woman
   whose body was found on Sunday shortly before his arrest.

   Even though the student had been flagged there had been no specific
   reason to open a judicial investigation, Interior Minister Bernard
   Cazeneuve said Wednesday.

   Suspect had lived in France

   Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said the suspect had lived in France
   for several years.

   He was waiting outside his apartment building for first aid when police
   arrived. They followed a trail of blood to his car, which contained
   loaded guns, and notes about potential targets.

   A search of his apartment in southeastern Paris turned up more weapons
   including three Kalashnikov assault rifles along with phones and
   computers that police used to establish that he'd been in communication
   with someone "who could have been in Syria," Molins said at a news
   conference.

   This person "explicitly asked him to target a church," Molins said,
   declining to answer questions about the investigation into what he
   termed "an imminent attack."

   Police also found Arabic-language material that mentioned al-Qaida and
   the Islamic State group in the man's apartment, Molins said.

   The thwarted attack was announced hours before Cazeneuve met with
   executives from top Internet companies, including Google and Twitter,
   to talk about the government's plan to increase online surveillance and
   block jihadi propaganda.

   Material for this report came from Reuters and AP.
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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/france-five-attacks-foiled-since-january/2731253.html