Roundup: French police foil terror attacks, arrest seven suspects: interior minister

Anti-terrorism operations undertaken this weekend in Strasbourg and Marseille have allowed French authorities "to cause the failure of a long-planned terrorist action," declared French Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve on Monday.

Thanks to this weekend's arrest of seven men in Strasbourg in eastern France and Marseille in the south coast of the country, as part of an investigation into a terrorist network, "a large-scale terrorist attack has been foiled," indicated Minister Cazeneuve midday. The seven suspects were questioned on Monday by investigators.

The seven men arrested in the early hours of Sunday morning were between 29 and 37 years old. They were of French, Moroccan and Afghan nationality. Among the seven, six men were previously unknown by intelligence agencies, specified the Interior Minister.

The arrests come just days before the planned Friday opening of the 446th edition of Strasbourg's celebrated Christmas Market, which attracts annual crowds of nearly 2 million people to the streets of the Alsatian capital city.

The investigation was opened eight months ago, indicated Bernard Cazeneuve. A first series of five arrests took place on June 14. The Interior Minister also gave a statistical report on anti-terrorism operations, evoking 418 arrests since the beginning of the year. Since September 1, 143 people have been arrested, 52 individuals have been put in detention and 21 placed under judicial supervision, he added.

For the month of November alone, authorities have made 43 terrorism-related arrests, of which 28 were immediately conferred to court prosecutors. "That many more terrorist attacks and tragedies avoided," Cazeneuve declared.

Police officers from the General Directorate of Interior Security (DGSI) led operations in two neighborhoods in Strasbourg in the early hours of Sunday morning, resulting in the arrests of four men.

According to French news station I-Tele, the presumed terrorist cell dismantled in Strasbourg might have been formed and guided from Rakka in Syria. Weapons (at least two pistols and an automatic pistol of the Uzi type) were found during the initial searches, as well as an abundance of jihadist literature that investigators must now analyze.

The Prefect of the French Bas-Rhin department in eastern France, Stephane Fratacci, indicated on November 8 that "in the case of precise and particular information" on terrorist threats, the Christmas market could be "suspended or cancelled."

In May 2014, a jihadist cell had been dismantled in the region, with the arrest of seven Alsatians, who had travelled to Syria between 2013 and 2014. They were found guilty in July in Paris and given sentences of between six and nine years in prison.

The toughest sentence was given to Karim Mohamed-Aggad, whose brother Foued has been identified as one of the suicide bombers in the terrorist attack on the Bataclan club in Paris on Nov. 13, 2015.

Elsewhere, two other men were arrested in the South of France in Marseille on Sunday, and are believed to be linked to the four Strasbourg arrests, as well as part of a unit sought by the DGSI for over six months.

France has been confronted for the past two years by terrorist threats almost without precedent, which was notably made concrete by the 2015 Paris attacks which left 130 people dead, and in July 2016 in Nice, with 86 deaths.

"Terrorism is here. And the threat is heavy," declared French Prime Minister Manual Valls on Friday, speaking on the question of the state of emergency which has been in force since November 2015.

Francois Hollande, President of France, affirmed on November 15 that he wishes to prolong the state of emergency until the presidential elections scheduled for April and May 2017. Endit