More than two dozen possible terrorists were arrested in raids in France, Belgium, and Germany on Friday. Two suspects were killed in one raid that potentially stopped a major impending terror attack. VPC
Authorities in France, Belgium and Germany arrested more than two-dozen people in anti-terror raids Friday, reflecting a renewed urgency in Europe to combat the growing threat from Islamic extremism inside its borders.
The police raids in Belgium came after authorities Thursday night moved to pre-empt what they called a major impending attack, killing two suspects in a firefight and arresting a third.
The suspects intended to kill police in the streets or in their offices, Belgian judge Eric Van der Sypt said. A dozen searches led to the discovery of police uniforms, large amounts of cash and military-grade weapons including Kalashnikov assault rifles, he added.
At least 15 people were detained in the nation Friday. The investigation into those detained began before last week's terror attacks in Paris that killed 17 people, Van der Sypt said.
In France, at least 12 people were arrested in anti-terrorism raids in Paris, targeting people linked to kosher market gunman Amedy Coulibaly, who claimed ties to the Islamic State.
In Germany, police in Berlin arrested two people with suspected terror links. It was not clear if those arrests were linked to the investigations in France and Belgium.
The attacks in Paris last week galvanized Europe and highlighted the threat from thousands of young Muslims who have been radicalized and often receive training from jihadists during trips to Iraq or Syria. Many of them carry European passports and return with plans to attack Western targets.
One of the brothers who carried out the attack on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris had traveled to Yemen where he established some ties with al-Qaeda's affiliate there. Coulibaly's common-law wife, Hayat Boumeddiene, is believed to have escaped to Syria before the Paris attacks.
Rob Wainwright, the head of the European Union's police agency Europol, said at least 2,500 and possibly up to 5,000 suspects have traveled from Europe to conflicts in Syria and Iraq. It is not known how many may have returned to European soil to wage jihad.
The threat is difficult to counter because many of the attacks are the work of small cells, which are hard to infiltrate.
"The scale of the problem, the diffuse nature of the network, the scale of the people involved makes this extremely difficult for even very well-functioning counter-terrorist agencies such as we have in France to stop every attack," Wainwright said.
Europe is grappling with ways to control the flow of radicals to Syria and Iraq. French authorities can now ban suspected jihadists from leaving the country, as part of tougher anti-terrorism measures that went into effect Friday after being approved by parliament in November.
French authorities now have the power to confiscate passports and identity cards when they have "serious reasons" to believe a person intends to travel abroad with a terrorist purpose or to join countries where terrorist groups are operating, such as Syria or Iraq. The law also allows authorities to stop people with French residency — but not citizenship — from returning to France if their presence would be "a real, present, serious threat" to security.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State John Kerry visited Paris following criticism of the Obama administration last week that a senior cabinet-level official from the United States did not attend Sunday's solidarity marches there.
"I think you know that you have the full and heartfelt condolences of the American people and I know you know that we share the pain and the horror of everything that you went through," Kerry told French President Francois Hollande on Friday. "Our hearts are with you."
France remains on edge. The government has deployed 122,000 police and troops around the country in the wake of last week's terror attacks. A bomb scare forced Paris to evacuate its busy Gare de l'Est train station during the Friday morning rush hour. No bomb was found. A man also took two hostages at a post office in Colombes northwest of Paris, but police said the hostage-taker had mental issues and no links to terror.
Contributing: Associated Press
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