France commemorates victims amid persistent high terror risk

Photo taken on Nov. 13, 2018 shows a commemorative plaque at the entrance of the Bataclan concert hall after a ceremony marking the third anniversary of the Paris attacks in Paris, France. A ceremony was held on Tuesday at the places of the terrorist attacks which killed 130 people in 2015. (Xinhua/Chen Yichen)

PARIS, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe Tuesday opened a commemoration ceremony in front of the door of the Stade de France where a sucide bomber killed one person during a crowded Friday evening in 2015.

The attack was the first of a series of coordinated attacks, claimed by the Islamic State (IS), which targeted bars, a concert hall and a soccer stadium in Paris. About 130 people were killed and more than 350 others were wounded in France's bloodiest terror assault.

Accompanied by government members, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo and London mayor Sadiq Khan, Prime Minister Philippe later went to the cafes and restaurants Le Carillon, Le Petit Cambodge, La Bonne Biere, Comptoir Voltaire and la Belle Equipe, where wreaths had been laid and the names of the victims were solemnly read out.

The ceremony ended at the Bataclan performance hall where 90 people lost their lives.

"On November 13, 2015, Islamist terrorists wanted to blow what we are, our freedom, our way of life, our sense of celebration, of debate, what we are very deeply, what we want to continue to be," the French prime minister told lawmakers on Tuesday.

Three years later, France remains a traget of terrorist cells, he warned.

"I would never say that we can guarantee the risk zero. It will be absurd," he said.

"What we can guarantee to the French is that we will do everything to take this incredible threat seriously and bring the answers that are up to the challenges," he added.

French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted on Tuesday: "Three years have gone, but nothing is forgotten. November 13 has entered the memory of the entire nation ... We will never forget them: they remind us of the strength of what holds us together and cannot be destroyed."

Making the fight against terrorism one of his mandates priorities, President Macron, in October 2017, signed a bill that will enshrine emergency security rules into ordinary law that give police the power to conduct searches and make arrests without a judge's approval and restrict people movements and gathering.

So far this year, France's anti-terrorism units have foiled six planned terrorist assaults, said French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, earlier in the day. He warned that the menace of terrorism remained high "even if it has changed shape" after the defeat of the Islamic State (IS).

Last week, a young Syrian man was placed under formal investigation and charged with planning a terrorist attack on the French soil.

He pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) and denounced "disbelievers." He also called for attacks on them in several videos that police had found during a raid at his home. 

Photo taken on Nov. 13, 2018 shows a commemorative plaque with flowers at the entrance of the Bataclan concert hall after a ceremony marking the third anniversary of the Paris attacks in Paris, France. A ceremony was held on Tuesday at the places of the terrorist attacks which killed 130 people in 2015. (Xinhua/Chen Yichen)