French Cops Fight Terrorist Cell In Paris As EU Ponders Mali Action – OpEd
By Jim Kouri
Officials from the European Union said on Monday they would draw up plans for a military training program complete with advisors to help Mali’s army regain control of the Islamist-dominated north of the country. But the Islamic terrorists have already begun threatening and plotting against EU members such as France.
For example, French police officials on Thursday said they arrested a group of Islamists who were planning suicide bombings in Paris in retaliation for France’s policy regarding Mali and the French government’s push for assisting the Mali government.
According to officials, these Islamists also were recruiting Jihadist fighters to join al-Qaeda and other groups who are participating in the uprising against the Assad-regime in Syria. According to the French police, a total of 12 suspects were arrested at different times, different days and at different locations beginning at the start of the week.
Al Qaeda-linked Islamists from the MUJWA group threatened to “open the doors of hell” for French citizens if France kept pushing for armed intervention to retake the northern Mali.
Seven suspects were keep under tight police surveillance on suspicion of taking part in terrorist activities with two of them were also suspected in recruiting volunteers to join Islamist fighters for terrorist operations in countries such as Syria.
The other five of the 12 suspects were arrested on charges of having links to an attack on a kosher market.
French detectives on Wednesday discovered materials necessary for building improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in a garage in a Parisian suburb as part of an investigation into an “extremely dangerous terrorist cell” according to Paris prosecutor Francois Molins.
Last Saturday, law enforcement agencies launched a nationwide anti-terror raid to dismantle a radical Islamist cell during which one suspect involved in an attempted grenade attack on a kosher grocery was killed by officers.
“The intention was really to kill and it is only by chance that the attack did not have the intended consequences,” Molins told French reporters.
While Spain and Britain have been targeted by Islamic terrorist cells in their capitals, the French have not experienced a major attack with mass casualties on its soil since 1995, when North African Islamists bombed the French underground subway system and other targets located in Paris.
France’s Jewish community has been on edge after a series of attacks in recent months. In the worst incident, 23-year-old Mohamed Merah, seemingly acting alone, killed three soldiers in two separate attacks before shooting dead three children and a rabbi outside a Jewish school in Toulouse, according to Israel National Radio.