Following the deadly attack at Charlie Hebdo and hostage-taking at a kosher market in Paris, the government is deploying 10,000 troops throughout France and sending 5,000 police to protect Jewish sites. Authorities continue to search for the accomplices to both attacks. Prime Minister Manuel Valls believes that the gunman who killed a policewoman and four other people after taking a customers in a kosher store hostage had an accomplice. He stated that “the threat is still present” after the attacks and that “the work on these attacks, on these terrorist and barbaric acts continues…because we consider that there are most probably some possible accomplices.”
Defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian affirmed that troops would guard any sensitive locations. Following a national security crisis meeting he stated: “We have decided…to mobilize 10,000 men to protect sensitive sites throughout the country starting tomorrow [Tuesday] evening. This is the first time our troops have mobilized to such an extent on our own soil. The threats remain and we have to protect ourselves from them. It is an internal operation that will mobilize almost as many men as we have in our overseas operations.”
In response to the public’s fear seven hundred police officers are guarding 717 Jewish schools throughout the country. There are already 4,100 gendarmes deployed.
It is not known how many accomplices French authorities are searching for, but it is believed that Coulibaly’s partner Hayat Boumeddienne has fled to Syria. The security meeting was held after the video of Coulibaly declaring his allegiance to ISIL was released on the Internet. In the video Coulibaly states that he collaborated with the Kouachi brothers.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said that he would travel to Paris for talks on countering violent extremism. His statement followed criticism of the Obama administration for not sending anyone to attend the rally that drew between 1.5 and 2 million people. Marchers carried pencils, pens and placards that read “Nous sommes la République” and “Je suis Muslim.” The march was led by the victims’ families and a group of 50 world leaders including President Hollande, Angela Merkel and Binyamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas.
