TERRORISTS TARGET EUROPEAN CHRISTMAS MARKETS: This AFP report says European police forces have responded to the Berlin terror attack by beefing up their presence at Christmas markets.

French authorities said the threat to Christmas markets and Christmas shopping crowds isn’t new:

President Francois Hollande said France was under a “high level of threat” following the events in Berlin but pointed out that the country already has a large-scale security operation in place.

“We have a high level of threat and we also have a particularly high level of mobilization and vigilance,” Hollande said.

France’s best-known Christmas market in the picturesque eastern city of Strasbourg has been a particular concern for security forces for years, with at least two jihadist cells in the city being broken up in the past few years.

More:

The large Christmas market extending along the renowned Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris was the target for a gang of six suspected jihadists arrested in November, according to prosecutors.

In the wake of the Berlin attack, officials on Tuesday added more concrete blast blocks at pedestrian entrances to the market, which is sealed off on the traffic side by barricades…

…In Britain, the central English city of Birmingham erected concrete blocks earlier this month around what it bills as the “largest authentic German Christmas market outside Germany or Austria”.

Targeting a Christmas market gives Islamist terrorists a deadly twofer. The terrorists metaphorically target a Christian holiday. They also target economic activity.