French police arrested nine people today over a series of attacks targeting a Muslim prefect.
The police swoop in Paris and the western city of Nantes followed three attacks in January against Mr Aissa Dermouche, including a bomb explosion that wrecked his car, after he was named prefect of the Jura region in eastern France.
The sources said some of the people detained were members of an organisation called Adsav, an extreme right-wing group from Brittany in northwestern France. They gave no other details.
The bomb attack on Mr Dermouche's car near his home in Nantes on January 18th was followed by an explosion a week later at the entrance to a business school he headed. A small blast damaged the letter-box of a school attended by his son on January 29th.
No one has been hurt in the attacks. Police have not said publicly whether they believe the Algerian-born Mr Dermouche, one of France's first Muslim prefects, is the victim of a personal vendetta or if the attacks are politically motivated.
The appointment of Mr Dermouche as the government's senior representative in Jura is intended to represent a Muslim success story. The government has said it will not let the attacks upset its efforts to better integrate France's five million Muslims.
The government is trying to counter fundamentalist attitudes and social discontent among Muslims by promoting a moderate "French Islam", but moves to ban the Muslim headscarf in state schools has prompted protests.