Europe on high alert, dozens detained

(Vatican Radio) Europe is on high alert following anti-terror operations in several countries amid fears of more attacks after last week's massacre in Paris and Thursday's killing in Belgium of two terror suspects in a police raid. The violence has added to concern within Jewish communities who have become terror targets as well.  

Listen to the report by Stefan Bos:

Belgium's army was patrolling the streets Saturday in key areas, while anti-terror raids across Western Europe led to the detention of dozens of suspects. Anxiety has soared following last week's bloody spree in and around Paris that left 20 people dead, including the three gunmen. 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited the French capital to express his condolences, and concern. "I really wanted to come here and share a hug with all of Paris and all of France," Kerry stressed. 

He spoke at a ceremony at Hotel de Ville, the city hall of Paris, to a crowd that included survivors, family members of victims, and members of the police and municipal government who responded to the attacks. 

Among those listening was also a Muslim man who risked his life to hide Jewish patrons from the gunman, who stormed a kosher supermarket. 

INNOCENT LIVES

"I wanted to express to you personally the sheer horror and revulsion of all Americans for the cowardly and despicable assault on innocent lives," Kerry said. 

His friend James Taylor, the musician, sang an acoustic version of his hit cover "You've Got A Friend" to his French hosts. Kerry stood at the musician's side throughout his three-and-a-half-minute rendition of the Carole King song, which he began with several bars of the French national anthem.

Later, Kerry and France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius laid a wreath at the Hyper Cacher kosher market, one of the two sites that had been attacked last week. 

Kerry and Fabius spoke briefly with Joel Mergui, the head of France’s Rabbinical Council, before heading to the memorial for those killed at the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper by gunmen, claiming to be acting on behalf of Al Qaeda’s Yemen branch to avenge the publication of cartoons, mocking the Prophet Mohammed.

There, at a makeshift memorial down the street from the newspaper’s office, they laid another wreath and were joined by François Vauglin, the mayor of the district.

POLICE KILLED

Kerry, accompanied by U.S. Ambassador to France Jane Hartley, later walked the short distance to where a Paris police officer was killed by the gunmen and placed flowers at the site.

Kerry's visit comes amid lingering criticism of the Obama administration's failure to send a cabinet-level official to Paris for last Sunday's unity march that attracted some 40 world leaders and more than one million demonstrators.

And officials warn more will be needed than a hug to halt terror attacks amid security concerns about radicalized Islamic fighters returning from the battlefields of Syria, Iraq and Yemen.   

The head of the police agency Europol, Rob Wainwright, fears up to 5,000 Muslim extremists in Europe are increasingly sophisticated.

"The scale of the people involved makes this extremely difficult for even very well-functioning counter-terrorist agencies," he warned.  

French, German, Belgian and Irish police had at least 30 suspects behind bars on Friday and in Brussels, authorities said a dozen searches led to the seizure of four Kalashnikov assault rifles, hand guns and explosives. 

TERROR CELL

A terror cell on the brink of carrying out an attack was the target of a raid Thursday that left two suspects dead, Belgian authorities confirmed. Another suspect was injured and taken into custody in the operation at a building in the eastern city of Verviers, the prosecutor's spokesman Thierry Werts told reporters.

Several police uniforms were also found, which Belgian authorities said suggested the plotters had intended to masquerade as police officers.

Belgium plans to expand legislation to consider it a crime to travel abroad with terror activity as a goal and to allow authorities to seize passports of people suspected of traveling to such areas.

The attacks have added to concerns within Jewish communities. Several Jewish people say they are considering to leave Europe where some six million Jews were killed during World War Two.

Authorities have however increased security around Jewish sites, including schools and synagogues. 

CRACKDOWN CONTINUES

French President François Hollande has warned his country will continue its crackdown on suspected terrorists. 

"France is waging war against terrorism," he said, and it will not halt its "international military operations against Islamic extremists."  

Yet his statements have done little to ease concerns among Jewish and non-Jewish Europeans, especially in Western Europe, including Germany. 

A poll conducted following the Paris attacks for German television showed 70 per cent of Germans fear an attack on the country by Islamic extremists, up 10 percentage points from a survey taken in September.