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French police arrest Islamic terror suspects
Security forces conduct dawn raids in search of terror suspects amid crackdown on Islamic extremism
The DCRI domestic intelligence service, supported by elite police commandos, carried out arrests in the southern cities of Marseille and Valence, two smaller towns in the southwest, and in the northeastern town of Roubaix, a police source said. (AFP/Getty Images)
Interior Minister Claude Gueant pledged there would be no respite in France’s pursuit of militants. (AFP/Getty Images)
“The pressure on radical Islam and the threats it represents will not stop,” he said. (AFP/Getty Images)
The raids, which followed Friday’s arrest of 19 suspects, came 13 days after police snipers shot dead 23-year-old gunman Mohamed Merah, who had killed three Jewish school children, a rabbi and three soldiers in a spate of attacks around Toulouse. (AFP/Getty Images)
“Those arrested have a similar profile to Mohamed Merah,” a local police source said. “They are isolated individuals who are self-radicalized.” (AFP/Getty Images)
He said the suspects were tracked on Islamist forums expressing extreme views and were preparing to travel to areas including Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Sahel belt of West Africa to wage jihad (holy war). Some of those arrested had already visited these areas, the source said.(AFP/Getty Images)
Sarkozy, who faces an uphill task to win re-election in an April-May two-round vote, has vowed to root out any form of militancy following Merah’s killing spree.(AFP/Getty Images)
