FRANCE: Four suspected Islamic militants arrested at an apartment near Paris, where both chemicals and a special chemical protection suit were found, may have been preparing a terrorist attack, French Interior Minister Mr Nicolas Sarkozy said yesterday.
"This is not a petty affair," he said in Paris, the day after the three men and one woman, all of North African origin, were arrested in an apartment in a run-down housing complex in the northern suburb of La Courneuve.
Chemicals found during the raid, which took place early on Monday on orders from top anti-terrorism prosecutor Mr Jean-Louis Bruguiere, were still being analysed yesterday, and Mr Sarkozy revealed that a special suit to protect its wearer against chemical or biological agents was also found in the apartment.
He said one of the four was believed to have been in contact with an Algerian held in Britain over an alleged plot to use a chemical agent in a terrorist attack, although he did not say what kind of action the group may have been preparing in France.
The three men were also believed to have spent time in both Afghanistan and Chechnya, where major conflicts involving Islamic extremists have taken place, Mr Sarkozy said.
"As regards those four, it is better to have caught them beforehand rather than afterwards," he commented.
Although lab results on the liquid found in two jars in the suspects' apartment were not due until later yesterday, Mr Sarkozy said that: "When one finds people with this sort of material, one has to arrest them." The affair was "very serious", and probably the biggest French raid of its kind since the anti-US attacks of September 11th, 2001, he added.
Mr Sarkozy, who was appointed interior minister when a new conservative government came to power in France in June, has recently been maintaining a high media profile, seeking notably to project a tough law-and-order image and to reassure the public in the run-up to the festive season.
The four detained in Monday were reported to be three Algerians and a Moroccan.
One of them was identified as Ben Ahmed Mirouani (29). His wife, also Algerian, was also detained. Two of the arrested were carrying false identity papers, officials said.
They carried "large amounts of money and false documents and were in possession of two empty 13-kilogram containers, two phials with liquid currently being analysed and a protective suit", said Mr Sarkozy.
Three of them "apparently stayed in Chechnya and had contacts with \ Kadre, who was arrested [in Britain\] on November 5th on suspicion of planning a chemical attack," he said.
Kadre, alias "Toufik", an Algerian, is suspected of preparing an attack on London's Underground metro rail network. "Toufik", is also wanted in France where he has been linked to the so-called "Frankfurt group" who allegedly planned an attack - foiled by police - on Strasbourg two years ago.
- (AFP)