by Han Qian
PARIS, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- As in 2015, the year 2016 in France was marked by an enduring battle against terrorism. With more than 15 attacks thwarted throughout the year, the fight against terrorism has been at the center of the country's focus this year.
France had first seen bloody attacks in 2015, from the attack against the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in January to the six coordinated attacks on the night of Nov. 13, claiming 130 lives.
Since the beginning of this year, "17 attacks have been foiled, 420 individuals linked to terrorist networks have been arrested in France thanks to the action of the intelligence services," Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in mid-December.
One of the thwarted attacks was envisaged in September 2016 by a terrorist group composed of young women. The group was remotely controlled by Islamic State in Syria, authorities said.
This group planned to commit an attack in the heart of Paris, and managed to get a vehicle without a license plate containing five gas cylinders and three bottles having traces of diesel fuel.
If the attempt to burn the vehicle had succeeded, it "would have resulted in the explosion of at least one gas cylinder within a few minutes, which alone would have caused the destruction of the entire vehicle," said prosecutor Francois Molins.
Two months later, in November, an attack plotted by a unit of seven men was neutralized by the arrest of the alleged perpetrators in Strasbourg and Marseilles under the framework of an anti-terrorist operation. According to French media, the suspects -- also controlled by IS -- were aiming to carry out an attack on December 1.
Since the deadly attacks of November 2015, France has put in place a system including laws and mobilization of security forces to anticipate, prevent and respond to similar threats.
As a result, more than 10,000 members of the security forces have been mobilized across the national territory under the Vigipirate plan, the French national security alert system.
In exceptional events such as the Euro 2016 football, 90,000 police officers, military police and private agents were sent to ensure security during the 30-day tournament.
From a legal point of view, the intelligence act gives more freedom to intelligence services. In addition, a state of emergency has been made part of the constitution, allowing administrative searches of homes, dissolution of radical associations or groups, shutting down of places for meetings and house arrests.
However, despite these urgent measures, 2016 saw deadly attacks, the worst of which was in Nice on July 14, killing 86 people and wounding more than 400.
Eleven days later, another attack was committed at the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near the city of Rouen, where an 85-year-old priest was murdered by two young terrorists.
The terrorist threat facing France has never been higher than in 2016, according to French authorities, particularly following the return of some French extremists.
"Today, the threat is maximum and we are a target. We have close to 700 jihadists who are French or residing in France, they are fighting in Iraq and Syria," said former prime minister Manuel Valls.
Of these 700, "there are 275 women and dozens of minors while 196 extremists have died in Iraq or Syria. We have 1,350 people in our territory who are being investigated, 293 of whom are directly linked to terrorist networks and are in prison," Valls added.
Under such circumstances, authorities are more determined than ever to fight terrorism.
The parliament in mid-December adopted a bill extending for the fifth time the state of emergency which allowed 4,194 searches, more than 517 arrests, and the seizure of nearly 600 weapons including 77 weapons of war.
In the context of the war against terrorism, a newly improved version of the Vigipirate plan was validated in early December by the Council of Defense and National Security.
The new bill is adapted to new forms of terrorist attacks such as shootings, chemical attacks, explosions, car ramming into objects, cyber attacks or drones.
