France says arrested suspects linked to al-Qaeda
By MARK JOHN
Reuters
PARIS - Suspects arrested in France this week in connection with the bombing of a synagogue in Tunisia in April had links to al Qaeda, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday.
The arrests come amid French reports of heightened activity among radical Islamic groups in Europe. One newspaper cited a leaked French intelligence report that concluded France was a "favored target" for an attack.
Speaking on French radio, Sarkozy said more information would come to light soon about the arrest of eight people in Lyon on Tuesday, and at least one other person in Marseille.
"In Marseille and Lyon, the next few days will show us that this is about important things," he told Europe 1 radio. When asked whether there was an al Qaeda link to the arrests, he replied: "Unfortunately."
The government said this week those arrested in Lyon included the father, mother, brother and other relatives of Nizar Nouar, 24, the truck driver killed in what authorities called a suicide attack on the synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia.
Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the explosion, which killed 14 Germans, five Tunisians and a Frenchman.
Sarkozy's comments heightened concerns in France that al Qaeda operatives could be plotting an attack in the country.
French newspaper Le Parisien quoted on Friday from what it said was a leaked report by French undercover police as saying France was a "favored target" for attacks.
It said the report by France's General Intelligence (RG) police unit said France was in the sights of militant Islamic groups which remained active in Europe despite efforts to break them up after last year's September 11 attacks.
Le Parisien quoted the RG report as saying around 30 French citizens had received so-called jihad (Holy War) training and were ready to reinforce fundamentalist cells in Europe.
Separately, the head of the world-wide police authority Interpol told the Paris daily Le Figaro that al Qaeda militants seem to be preparing simultaneous attacks in several countries including the United States.
"All intelligence experts are agreed that al Qaeda is preparing a major terrorist operation, simultaneous attacks that would not target the United States alone but several countries at the same time," Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said.
French officials have long suspected al Qaeda recruited young men in the bleak suburbs around French cities where many unemployed young North Africans turn to Islam for direction.
In the Djerba case, Nouar's brother, 22-year-old Walid, is being held on suspicion of having bought a satellite phone used by the suspected suicide bomber before the synagogue attack, judicial sources said. His case is to be heard by a judge on Tuesday.
Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in the United States in connection with the September 11 attacks, grew up in southern France in a family of Moroccan immigrants.
There is no known connection between Moussaoui and the recent arrests in Lyon and Marseille.
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