Police in five European countries arrested more than 80 suspected Islamist militants early yesterday in raids intended to prevent the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA) from staging attacks during the World Cup, which will take place in France from June 10th until July 12th.
The arrests were made on warrants issued by four French "antiterrorist" judges led by Mr JeanLouis Brugiere. Mr Brugiere was to go to Germany late yesterday to interview two Algerians arrested there, Adel Mechat and Omar Saiti. Mr Mechat is allegedly the "right arm" of Hassan Hattab, a GIA leader said to be rebuilding the group's European network from Algiers.
In France, police searched 43 locations and arrested 53 people of Algerian, French and Tunisian origin. The surprise raids were carried out by plain-clothes police and black-hooded commandos at 6 a.m. in Paris, Lyon, Marseille and Corsica. French police seized Ffr 800,000 (£95,283) in cash, Islamist pamphlets and videotapes, and one firearm.
Italian security forces arrested nine Algerians in a move they tactlessly named "Operation Crusades" after medieval Christendom's war against Arab Muslims. German authorities held five men in Bonn and Cologne while Belgian officials raided a dozen homes in Brussels and Charleroi. Swiss police arrested more Algerians near Zurich.
The French Interior Ministry said the arrests were carried out after several months of surveillance by intelligence agencies "enabling us to presume that terrorist actions were being prepared in the run-up to the World Cup." But police sources said they knew of no specific threat to the football championship.
Eight people were killed and 170 others injured in GIA bombings in France in 1995. Four more people were killed in a December 1996 bombing at the Paris Port Royal metro station. Algerian Islamists accuse the French government of supporting the regime of President Liamine Zeroual. Britain was noticeably absent from the countries participating in yesterday's sweep, although eight Algerians were arrested in London earlier this month. France and Britain are at odds over the threat posed by North African Islamists, many of whom Britain regards as political exiles.
Since November 1993, French police have staged at least four large-scale round-ups of fundamentalists, arresting as many as 95 people in one day. Their goal is to catch sympathisers who supply false identity papers and lodgings to extremists. French authorities described yesterday's raids as "a kick in the anthill" before the World Cup. The number of French troops wearing camouflage uniforms and holding sub-machine-guns in metros and train stations has increased from 800 to 1,800 for the World Cup.
