French anti-terrorist police arrest 12 in anti-Islamist raids

[News_Editor]

French anti-terrorist police arrest 12 in anti-Islamist raids

2010-10-05 22:23:46 GMT+7 (ICT)

PARIS (BNO NEWS) -- Twelve people linked to terrorist network activity have been arrested in France in two separate operations during anti-Islamist raids, officials said Tuesday.

Nine individuals were arrested in southern France Tuesday morning after three others had been previously detained following the arrest of a man in Italy in possession of explosives, who was carrying the names of the three individuals.

During Tuesday morning's raids in Marseille and Avignon, French police seized a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a shotgun, and ammunition.

On Saturday, Ryad Hannouni, of Algerian origin and who had recently returned from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, where he is believed to have fought with the Taliban or their allies, was arrested in Naples, Italy. After his arrest, contact information was discovered, which led to the arrest of an individual in Marseille and two in Bordeaux.

France has requested Hannouni to be extradited to conduct further questioning, but the three arrested men are expected to be facing relatively minor crimes, such as faking documents.

The U.S., U.K., Japan, and Sweden, have in the past few days issued travel alerts for the western region of Europe, advising citizens of possible terrorist attacks linked with al-Qaeda in several countries.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2010-10-05

[rgs2001uk]

Before some of the more PC members jump all over this, perhaps it would be better to change the heading to read,

French anti-terrorist police arrest 12 in anti-terror raids.