Macron says IS defeat removes 'significant threat' to France

French President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday that the fall of the so-called "caliphate" run by Islamic State jihadists in Syria has removed a source of potential terror attacks against France.

"A significant threat to our country" has been "eliminated", Macron said on Twitter, adding that "the step taken today is immense." "But the threat remains and the fight against terrorist groups must continue," he said.

France has suffered a wave of jihadist-inspired terror attacks that have killed 250 people since 2015, when gunmen massacred 12 people at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

The next day a man took hostages at a Jewish supermarket on the edge of Paris, killing four before being shot and killed by police.

"If you attack the caliphate, we will attack you," the attacker, Amedy Coulibaly, said in a posthumous video.

Macron's comments came as Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and other officials gathered in Trebes, southern France, to mark the first anniversary ..