France to assess security every week amid fears of terror attacks

French President Francois Hollande will reassess security measures once a week all summer, amid fears of new terror attacks after a deadly Bastille Day attack in Nice.

Government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said after a government meeting Saturday that France’s leadership is focusing on “adapting itself in all domains” to the evolving threat.

At Saturday’s meeting, the French government also discussed the attack on a Munich shopping center that left nine dead, and expressed support for the German government.

Hollande on Friday defended his government from accusations it relaxed its anti-terror defenses after the Euro championships, and announced plans to arm those fighting against the Islamic State group which claimed the Nice attack.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has been the lightning rod for accusations that authorities dropped their guard after the June 10-July 10 football tournament, leaving the Bastille Day celebrations targeted in last week’s massacre in Nice exposed.

Five suspects have been formally charged over the July 14 truck attack in the French Riviera city that killed 84 people.

Hollande said Cazeneuve, who has shrugged off opposition calls to resign, had his “full confidence” and announced he would ship weapons to Iraqi forces fighting the Islamic State (IS) group which claimed the attack.

“I took the decision as part of the anti-Daesh coalition to make weapons available to Iraqi forces,” Hollande said after a meeting of key ministers and security chiefs, using another name for IS.

“They will be there next month,” he added.

An aide to the president said the weaponry would include artillery batteries and that France — a member of the US-led anti-IS coalition — would also send military advisors to train Iraqi forces in using the arms.

Eight days after Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel rammed a lorry into crowds enjoying a firework display on Nice’s seafront promenade, 12 people were still fighting for their lives in hospital, Hollande said.

The Nice assault was the third major attack on French soil in the past 18 months, after the jihadist carnage in Paris in November and the shootings at a satirical magazine and kosher supermarket in January 2015.

IS has claimed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a Tunisian national, as one of its “soldiers” but given no proof of his affiliation. The group threatened further attacks in a video this week.

Cazeneuve has launched an investigation into potential security oversights.

The French Parliament this week extended the state of emergency in place since the November Paris attacks for a fourth time.

The security laws allow the authorities to carry out searches by day or night, without a warrant from a judge, and to place people under house arrest.