France announced sweeping new measures to counter homegrown terrorism Wednesday, including giving security forces better weapons and protection, going on an intelligence agent hiring spree and creating a better database of anyone suspected of extremist links.
The measures detailed by Prime Minister Manuel Valls came as four men were handed preliminary charges of providing logistical support to one of the Paris terror attackers — the first charges issued for three days of mayhem that left 20 people dead, including three gunmen.
The new security measures include increased intelligence-gathering on jihadis and other radicals, in part by making it easier to tap phones. Valls said Internet providers and social networks “have a legal responsibility under French law” to comply with the new measures.
Some 2,600 counter-terrorism officers will be hired, 1,100 of them specifically for intelligence services. Anti-terror surveillance is needed for 3,000 people with ties to France — some at home, others abroad, the prime minister said.
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In a separate terrorism investigation in neighboring Belgium, authorities said a fifth suspect linked to an alleged terror cell plotting a major attack on Belgian police was put behind bars. Belgium prosecutors also said those killed in an anti-terror raid in eastern Verviers last week were two Belgian nationals in their twenties.
With terror alert levels raised around Europe, European Union officials are working on better ways to combat terrorism continentwide. European lawmakers met Wednesday to assess plans for an EU-wide deal on exchanging sensitive air passenger information, but were resisting pressure to push the deal through quickly.
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Lori Hinnant, Jamey Keaten and Greg Keller in Paris and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed.
