Thread: French anti-terror police arrest six men in Strasbourg and Marseille

French anti-terror police arrest six men in Strasbourg and Marseille

PARIS (AFP) - French anti-terror police have arrested six men in the cities of Strasbourg and Marseille, security sources said on Monday (Nov 21).

Four men were arrested in eastern Strasbourg overnight on Saturday (Nov 19) to Sunday (Nov 20), with another two detained in southern Marseille the same evening, several sources close to the case said on condition of anonymity.

"Serious information made these arrests necessary," one source said, asking not to be named because he was not authorised to speak on the case.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve is set to give more details about the arrests later in the day.

Strasbourg has been on high alert ahead of the opening of its Christmas market, with local officials warning it could be suspended or cancelled if there were serious threats.

France remains in a state of emergency a year since attacks by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorists on Paris left 130 people dead.

French anti-terror police arrest six men in Strasbourg and Marseille ...

French Fresh News: A alleged plans for terrorist attacks simultaneous ...

The State Department put up a Travel Advisory for all of Europe and advise not going there for the holidays.

Two suspects freed in France terror plot probe

Posted on 23 November 2016 - 03:13pm

PARIS: French authorities late Tuesday released two of the seven suspects arrested in police raids at the weekend which broke up a terror ring plotting an attack, a judicial source told AFP.

Police swooped on Saturday night in the in the eastern city of Strasbourg and Marseille in the south following an investigation by security services lasting more than eight months.

They detained seven alleged plotters from France, Morocco and Afghanistan, foiling what Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve called "a long-planned terror attack on our soil."

Two of those held in Marseille were freed on Tuesday. They were suspected of having helped shelter a Moroccan identified as Hicham E., who is still in custody, thought to be the group's financer.

France is under a state of emergency that gives security forces enhanced powers to mount surveillance and launch raids, a year after the attacks by Islamic State jihadists on Paris that left 130 people dead.

The mayor of Strasbourg has said the interior ministry indicated the targets were in the Paris region rather than in his city, which will open a major Christmas market this Friday.

France has suffered three major attacks since January 2015 when gunmen targeted the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a Jewish supermarket, followed by last November's atrocities in Paris.

In July, a self-radicalised extremist drove a truck through crowds watching fireworks in the southern city of Nice, killing 86.

The four suspects held in Strasbourg, all French, aged between 35 and 37 and not previously known to the intelligence services, were still being questioned Tuesday.

Two of them are suspected of travelling to Syria in 2015 before returning to Europe.

Two handguns, an automatic pistol, a machine pistol and jihadist propaganda were all found during the raids.

Two Frenchmen linked to the group who are thought to have been in communication with a commander in Syria have been questioned and put behind bars, a probe source said. — AFP

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Thwarted French attack was slated for December 1 at key Paris sites

Thu Nov 24, 2016 5:49am EST

PARIS (Reuters) - Suspects arrested last weekend in France under anti-terrorism measures had been planning to launch attacks on Dec. 1 at important and landmark sites in and around Paris, according to a source close to the inquiry.

Police sources said that among the targets were France's counter-intelligence services hub in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret, the grandiose police crime-investigation headquarters at the Quai des Orfevres, and the riverside high court building nearby.

Also targeted by the would-be attackers were the Disneyland Paris theme park 32 kilometers (20 miles) east of the city and the Champs Elysees shopping strip.

The targets of the five men being held and the date of the planned assault were established thanks to information found on a smartphone, the police sources said.

More than 230 people have died in Islamist militant attacks around France since the beginning of 2015.

The most deadly of these took place just over a year ago in the capital, a co-ordinated series of assaults by gunmen and suicide bombers on the Bataclan music hall, cafes and bars, and on the Stade de France sports stadium on the edge of the city.

(Reporting by Gerard Bon; Editing by Michel Rose)

Thwarted French attack was slated for December 1 at key Paris sites

Fri Nov 25, 2016 | 12:46pm GMT

Islamic State directed suspects in planning attacks in France - prosecutor






An Islamic State flag is seen in this picture illustration taken February 18, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Five suspects, arrested in France on suspicion of planning attacks on security targets in and around the French capital, were directed remotely by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the Paris prosecutor said on Friday.

Authorities said earlier this week that attacks had been planned for Dec. 1 against police and intelligence headquarters in Paris as well as the Disneyland Paris theme park.

The prosecutor's emphasis that France was under direct threat of attacks from Islamic State militants raised tension as the country went into a weekend of political campaigning and a vote on Sunday for a centre-right candidate for next year's presidential election.

France is already under a state of emergency, with soldiers patrolling the streets of the capital, following bomb and shooting attacks by Islamic militants in November 2015 which killed 130 people.

"An imminent attack was thwarted," Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins told a news conference.

"A Strasbourg commando team, and also a man arrested in Marseille, were given instructions to acquire arms. The instructions were given by a commander from the Iraqi-Syrian region via encrypted apps," he said.

Hand-written documents pledging allegiance to Islamic State and glorifying martyrdom were found at a house in Strasbourg, eastern France, Molins said.

Two of the five suspects had travelled to the Turkey-Syria border via Cyprus in March 2015, he said. Four of the men are French, while a fifth is Moroccan.

Police meanwhile continued searching for an armed man after finding a dead woman in a retirement home where some 60 missionaries were living near Montpellier in southwestern France, sources close to the investigation said on Friday.

One source said a caretaker had contacted the police after freeing herself after being bound and gagged by the suspect.
Islamic State directed suspects in planning attacks in France - Reuters

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Two of the five suspects had travelled to the Turkey-Syria border via Cyprus

See how easily EU countries can connect thru Turkey .. and merkel wants to allow turkey into the EU and give visa free passage for all the muslim turks plus monies..the woman is insane.

Put your army at that border and let turkey try and unleash the over 3 million "refugees" they plan to unleash on Europe if they don't get their way.