French PM: ISIS could strike with chemical, biological weapons

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Thursday that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) could use biological or chemical weapons against his nation.

“Terrorism hit France, not because of what it is doing in Iraq and Syria … but for what it is,” Valls told members of France’s lower house of parliament, according to the BBC.  

“What is new are the ways of operating,” he continued. “The ways of attacking and killing are evolving all the time.

“The macabre imagination of those giving the orders is unlimited,” Valls added. “Assault rifles, beheadings, suicide bombers, knives or all of those at once.”

{mosads}Valls’s remarks follow last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 129 people in the French capital.

France’s lower house was meeting Thursday morning, the BBC said, over whether it should extend the nation’s state of emergency three more months.

Valls also called for better collaboration between European nations over intelligence regarding airline passengers, the news outlet added.

The BBC also reported that French police are now capable of carrying their firearms while off duty, provided they wear an armband for identification.

Paris police, meanwhile, have lengthened a ban on gatherings and demonstrations there until midnight Sunday.  

Rob Wainwright, the head of Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, also told parliamentary members in Brussels that ISIS is capable of more attacks against the continent.

French police raided a suburb of Paris Wednesday morning in a sweep for potential suspects linked with last week’s massacre. Two alleged radicals were killed and seven more arrested during the sweep in Saint-Denis.   

French authorities have announced that Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the mastermind of the Nov. 13 bloodshed, was among those killed.