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France boosts army reservist numbers to help in home security

France launches recruitment drive for 12,000 extra reservists to help with security operations around the country following 2015 terrorist attacks.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

France's defence minister is trying to recruit thousands more people to join the military reserve to boost anti-terrorism and other defence capacities, reports ABC News.

Jean-Yves Le Drian says the military is aiming to increase the number of reservists from 28,000 today to 40,000 by 2018. The idea would be to have 1,000 reservists available on any given day able to deploy around the country.

"More than ever, we need reservists to confront the terrorist threat, unprecedented in scale and shape, weighing on national territory," he said in a speech Thursday.

The move is part of expanded defence spending announced since Islamic extremist attacks last year in and around Paris in January and November.

Read more of this AP report published by ABC News.