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PARIS (Reuters) - Suspected Islamists arrested by secret service agents in Paris this week were plotting terrorist attacks on French and foreign targets in the country, the Paris public prosecutor’s office said on Friday. Anti-terrorism magistrates are to prosecute three of the 11 people detained in a series of swoops in a northern district of the French capital on Monday and Tuesday, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
The others have been released or will be shortly.
“This network is suspected of drawing up plans for attacks in France against French and foreign interests,” said the prosecutor’s office in a statement. It did not elaborate.
The prosecutor’s office confirmed two people had been charged with association with criminals engaged in a terrorist enterprise. They were to be remanded in custody later on Friday.
A third was to be questioned on Saturday by the anti-terrorism judges leading the investigation, Jean-Louis Bruguiere and Jean-Francois Richard.
Intelligence services believe the trio were part of an “Iraq (news - web sites) network” recruiting guerrillas to fight U.S.-led forces. Officials said the network had now been dismantled.
Anti-terrorism experts fear Iraq, like Afghanistan (news - web sites) in the 1980s, will attract Islamic militants bent on resorting to political violence once they return home.
Roland Jacquard, head of the International Terrorism Observatory in Paris, said earlier this month al Qaeda was training agents, including Western nationals, in Iraq and sending them home to form networks or sleeper cells.
France launched a formal probe into Iraq recruitment networks after three of its nationals died in fighting or suicide operations against U.S.-led forces. All three came from the Paris district raided in this week’s operation, Le Parisien newspaper reported on Wednesday.
news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050128/wl_nm/security_france_dc_1
The others have been released or will be shortly.
“This network is suspected of drawing up plans for attacks in France against French and foreign interests,” said the prosecutor’s office in a statement. It did not elaborate.
The prosecutor’s office confirmed two people had been charged with association with criminals engaged in a terrorist enterprise. They were to be remanded in custody later on Friday.
A third was to be questioned on Saturday by the anti-terrorism judges leading the investigation, Jean-Louis Bruguiere and Jean-Francois Richard.
Intelligence services believe the trio were part of an “Iraq (news - web sites) network” recruiting guerrillas to fight U.S.-led forces. Officials said the network had now been dismantled.
Anti-terrorism experts fear Iraq, like Afghanistan (news - web sites) in the 1980s, will attract Islamic militants bent on resorting to political violence once they return home.
Roland Jacquard, head of the International Terrorism Observatory in Paris, said earlier this month al Qaeda was training agents, including Western nationals, in Iraq and sending them home to form networks or sleeper cells.
France launched a formal probe into Iraq recruitment networks after three of its nationals died in fighting or suicide operations against U.S.-led forces. All three came from the Paris district raided in this week’s operation, Le Parisien newspaper reported on Wednesday.
news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050128/wl_nm/security_france_dc_1