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Zee French bagged a few terrorists.....only to be later released.

France detains two suspected militants

4/28/2005, 1:28 p.m. ET
By VERENA VON DERSCHAU
The Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — Police have detained two suspected Islamic militants as part of an investigation into young French Muslims going to Iraq to fight U.S.-led forces, judicial officials said Thursday.

Five people were originally taken into custody in a sweep by the French counterterrorism agency known as the DST on Sunday and Monday in Paris and the southern port city of Marseille.

But three of them were released Thursday without charge, the officials said on condition of anonymity, citing French laws that require confidentiality about ongoing investigations.

The officials identified one of the two suspects still being held as Said al-Maghrebi, an alleged Islamic militant. The other, who was not identified, had not yet been transferred from Marseille to Paris where the investigating judge is based.

Al-Maghrebi was to appear before a judge in Paris later Thursday and was expected to be placed under investigation — a step short of formal charges — which could extend his detention, the officials said.

Under France's anti-terrorism laws, detainees can be held for up to four days before being released or preliminarily charged.

The daily Le Figaro, citing unidentified police officials, reported Thursday that two of the suspects had been close to leaving for Iraq to join the insurgency against the U.S.-led coalition.

It said al-Maghrebi, 39, had fought U.S. forces in Afghanistan and joined Islamic fighters in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. He also knew two of the 10 Islamic militants convicted in December of plotting to blow up a Christmas market on New Year's Eve of 2000, Le Figaro said.

While the number of French-born fighters in Iraq appears to be small, anti-terrorism officials fear some of the young men — most of whom are of Tunisian and Algerian descent — will return home to launch attacks in France.

Since September, anti-terrorism magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere and his colleague Jean-Francois Ricard have headed a judicial investigation into the extent of networks suspected of dispatching Islamic combatants from France to Iraq.

In January, three young men — a suspected recruiter and two alleged volunteer fighters — were placed under investigation, judicial officials said.

Intelligence officials said they came from the same Paris neighborhood as three French citizens who were killed in the insurgency in Iraq.

http://www.nj.com/newsflash/war/index.ssf?/base/international-12/111470871842250.xml&storylist=njterror