Posted on 12/15/2005 11:50:43 AM PST by Alouette
PARIS (Reuters) - French police have seized large quantities of military weapons and explosives as part of a probe into an Islamic militant group said to have indirect links to al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, officials said on Thursday.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters the arsenal was discovered on Wednesday in a lock-up attached to a block of flats in the Clichy-sous-Bois suburb north of Paris.
Judicial sources said the haul included assault rifles, dynamite and TNT.
Police also arrested on Wednesday two new suspects in addition to the 25 rounded up in a string of dawn raids in the Paris area on Monday.
Investigators believe the gang financed Islamic militancy by staging armed robberies and judicial sources said one suspect had admitted planning one such robbery in Beauvais, north of Paris, in October.
Sarkozy told parliament this week that those detained had indirect links to key al Qaeda leaders and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the organization's leader in Iraq.
"Thanks to the arrests, an arms cache has just been discovered which reveals the seriousness of this matter. They are very determined people, with links between terrorist extremism and major crime," Sarkozy told BFM TV.
"We think they have indirect links, at a fairly high level, with al Qaeda," he said.
Four people have been released but police are still holding 23 people in custody on suspicion of terrorism-related offences.
They include Ouassini Cherifi, 30, who has just served a five-year jail term for trafficking forged passports used by armed militants.
Anti-terrorism magistrates are expected to place around 15 of the suspects under formal investigation on Friday. They must then be bailed or remanded in custody by a judge.
Judicial sources are cautious about the Zarqawi connection. So far, they have only linked the latest group to another disbanded by police in October and November. It was allegedly run by Safe Bourada, a French national implicated in a wave of Islamist attacks in France in 1995.
It is Bourada's group that has been linked to the GSPC, a militant Algerian Islamist group which western intelligence services say has contacts with Zarqawi.
The tough-talking Sarkozy, who wants to run for president in 2007, is steering a major anti-terrorism bill through parliament.
It sharply increases the use of closed circuit television surveillance, monitoring of mobile phone and Internet cafe connections and tougher sentencing for terrorism offences.
And the left would like us to believe that Zarqawi isn't an international threat.
Watch Sarkozy. He may be an even bigger fish in French politics in the future.
Sacre bleu!
This is good. Too bad it seems a big car-burning party was required to get the ball rolling.
I am shocked the French did not surrender to them........
Damn,that Karl Rove is good! How did he manage to do it?
"large quantities of military weapons and explosives"
These are nothing but peace-keeping weapons. Don't worry. Muslims are peaceful!
Paris has now become a "breading ground for terrorism". It's time to withdraw immediately.
This is all the more punctuation on the pressing need for us to have taken Saddam down, and gives all the more lie to the liberal/social dogma opposing the war effort.
I never thought I would hear "French police" and "seized" in the same sentence! Whoda thunk it?
This guy's a terrorist and they let him back into their society after his jail time was up? France is begging for trouble with islam.
I'm sure they are storing those weapons to protect local mosques in event of a western attack. Chirac can sleep comfortably at night, knowing they are no threat. Of course, he has dozens of bodyguards while his citizens possess mostly "locked doors".
Imagine where the real hauls are stored....
I would have to guess the mosques.
Now, just remember these are "impoverished youths."
This is the same district that started the carbeques last month. From stories i've read over the years it sounds like a perfect place for this type of activity. An ethnic enclave of fellow travellers where the police can't really conduct much in the way of an effective investiagation. Within a relatively short distance to all kinds of wealthy banks or businesses to rob and Lefty charities to solicit.
Have they surrendered yet?
This is an interesting turn considering France had all kinds of illegal weapons contracts with Saddam, which in turn armed al-Qaeda.
It's just French youths acting out. Let them work out their emotions and all will be well.
The world has to come to the realization especially with TODAY'S election that Iraq is now the real deal. So this doesn't surprise me one little bit. The world must have a stable Iraq. So they've all got to step up to the plate and start acting responsible.
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