2 French Citizens Accused of Terrorist Plot

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/08/world/africa/2-french-citizens-accused-of-terrorist-plot.html

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PARIS (AP) — Two Frenchmen suspected of plotting terrorist attacks, making explosives and being involved in extremist activity online were detained Thursday amid heightened concern about threats to France over its military campaign against fighters in Mali linked to Al Qaeda.

Officials at the Interior Ministry and the Paris prosecutor’s office say intelligence and police officers detained the young men on Thursday in a house in Marignane, near Marseille.

The authorities searched the house for explosives or other evidence of terrorist connections. The suspects are French citizens, aged 18 and 20, the officials said. The men had been under surveillance since November, the Interior Ministry official said. They had been identified as a threat based on “jihadist messages and consultations” online, and the authorities said they moved in because they believed the men were ready to carry out terrorist acts.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss terrorism inquiries publicly. It was not immediately clear what the target or targets of the potential attacks might have been, or whether the men were connected to terrorist organizations abroad.

The French authorities have been on high alert for terrorist activity for years, and this vigilance has escalated since January, when the French military began an operation against extremists who had imposed harsh Islamic rule in Mali.

There was no immediate link between the men detained Thursday and the Mali campaign. Yet the French authorities have warned that the operation in Africa increases the risk of attacks by militants in France. Small groups of militants from France have already headed to Mali.

“We can’t rule out that youth may want to punish France for what they consider to be an attack against Islam,” Marc Trevidic, a judge, said last week. He particularly noted the threat of a “low intensity” attack by isolated extremists, as opposed to big organized networks.

In Mali on Thursday, according to an Agence France-Presse report, the French defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, visited French troops in the north of the country, where the military says it has killed 150 Islamist rebels in the past month.