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France mobilizing 10,000 troops after deadly Paris attacks

Defence minister announces use of soldiers on home soil with 4,700 personnel deployed at France's 717 Jewish schools.

La rédaction de Mediapart

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France will have more than 10,000 soldiers mobilised on home soil by Tuesday after 17 were killed in attacks carried out by Islamist militants in Paris last week, defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Monday, reports Reuters.

Speaking a day after the biggest French public demonstration ever registered, held to remember the victims, he said France was still at risk of further attacks.

"The threats remain and we have to protect ourselves from them. It is an internal operation that will mobilise almost as many men as we have in our overseas operations," Le Drian told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

The victims, including journalists and police, lost their lives in three days of violence that began on Wednesday with a shooting attack on the political weekly Charlie Hebdo, known for its satirical attacks on Islam and other religions.

The Charlie Hebdo attackers, two French-born brothers of Algerian origin, singled out the weekly for its publication of cartoons depicting and ridiculing the Prophet Mohammad.

The bloodshed ended on Friday with a hostage-taking at a Jewish deli in which four hostages and another gunman were killed.

Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that 4,700 police officers would be deployed at all 717 Jewish schools across the country.

The first two attackers were also killed on Friday after a siege north of the capital. Police said all three men were part of the same Paris-based militant Islamist cell.

Read more of this report from Reuters.