1st LD Writethru: 10 arrested in France, Belgium in suspicious linkage to terror attacks

Ten people have been arrested between Monday and Wednesday in France and Belgium in suspicious linkage to the terror attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a Kosher supermarket in 2015 in Paris, media reported on Wednesday.

On January 9 of 2015, four people died when Amedy Coulibaly attacked a Jewish supermarket in Paris. Another 12 people died two days before, when the brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi opened fire against the office of the newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

The persons arrested are suspected to have provided Amedy Coulibaly -- the culprit of the attacks against the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo -- with weapons and have been detained in custody, Belgium's public broadcaster RTBF said.

The weapons used by Coulibaly came from Slovakia and were sold by an intermediary person in Belgium to Claude Hermant, currently in jail for illegal traffic of arms, added local media 7sur7.be, quoting judiciary sources close to the investigation.

In Paris, an anti-terrorist operation unfolded Wednesday morning in Trappes in the Yvelines department, as part of an investigation of the Paris anti-terrorism bureau, the daily newspaper Le Parisien reported on Wednesday.

Four people were questioned and placed under arrest, said Le Parisien. This operation would have been unrelated to an imminent threat of an attack, it added. Endit