Interior Minister Valls played down reports of a recent al Qaeda threat to European railways, saying French intelligence has found no evidence to support the alleged threat, but added that France is vigilant. Even though intelligence indicated no specific threat to France, but perhaps a general threat in northern Europe, France stepped up policing on its rail lines in the wake of the threat. French intelligence estimates that some 220 Frenchmen have gone to Syria for jihad; a “disproportionate number” are Muslim converts.
