Hollande calls Defence Council meeting after priest's killing near Rouen

PARIS, July 26 (KUNA) -- French President Francois Hollande has called a special Defence Council meeting early on Wednesday to discuss the aftermath of the killing of a Catholic priest Tuesday by two so-called Islamic State (IS) terrorists in a locality just south of the Normandy city of Rouen.
Hollande is calling in senior ministers and security chiefs to evaluate security measures and examine ways to enhance protection for different communities throughout France, which is under very serious threat from IS attacks, according to the Elysee Palace on Tuesday.
French police and military are already assigned to protect certain Jewish and Muslim institutions and sites, but there has been no broad protection for Catholic churches like the one attacked early Tuesday.
Wednesday's meeting is the fifth Defence Council meeting to be held since the massive truck attack claimed by IS on July 14 in Nice, when 84 people died and over 300 were wounded. But the terror group's links to the Nice attack are still not fully established, Interior Ministry sources said earlier, although the operation has been claimed by IS.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will be among other government members attending the Defence Council meeting, as will top police, security and intelligence chiefs.
The attack earlier Tuesday led to the murder of the priest in the small community Saint Etienne de Rouvray church and the serious wounding of one other person attending a service there.
Police sources confirmed that the priest had been executed by having his throat cut.
Police shot dead both attackers at the Church and later detained another man for questioning.
Hollande has called for "cohesion" among French people and urged them to form a "bloc" that cannot be split by terrorists who are seeking to sew division here among the different communities.
The French leader is also meeting with all major religious communities Wednesday to urge them to stay united faced with the IS onslaught.
There are over five million Muslims in France and only a very tiny minority have any links with terrorist networks and there are only between 2,000 to 3,000 people listed as having association with these networks, either loosely or closely.
But in the past, as after the 2015 terror attacks by IS here, there have been retaliatory attacks against Muslims, many of them living peacefully in France for many years. (pickup previous) jk.bs