This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/7310

Muslim Arrested In Paris Was In "Advanced Stages" Of Attack Plot - Six Muslims Arrested In Brussels Terror Raid

March 24, 2016

France arrests man who planned a terrorist attack
Ben Ariel

France arrested a man who was in the "advanced stages" of a plot to attack the country, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Thursday, according to The Associated Press (AP).

There were no links "at this stage" between the plan and the attacks in Paris or earlier this week in Brussels, he added.

Cazeneuve said bomb squads were on site. The raid took place in Argenteuil, on the northern outskirts of the French capital.

He noted that the person arrested was implicated at a "high level" in the plot, but offered no details.

France and Belgium have been closely linked to one another ever since the Paris attacks in November, in which more than 130 people were murdered.

The bombings in Brussels come just four days after the arrest of Salah Abdeslam in Belgium. Abdeslam is believed to have played a key role in organizing last year's Paris terror attacks.

Belgium has been conducting raids on terror targets ever since the November 13 ISIS attacks in Paris, particularly in the Molenbeek district of Brussels where the terrorists are believed to have come from.

Belgium's security services were on the defensive after the attacks when they were accused of blunders, infighting and worrying leniency towards radicalism that let the perpetrators of the Paris attacks slip under the radar.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/209881

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Six Suspected Terrorists Arrested In Brussels

Six terror suspects were arrested on Thursday in a series of police operations in Brussels, the Belgian the federal prosecutor's office said.

Police have been carrying out raids and conducting arrests in the Belgian capital since the terrorist attacks on the city this week.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/355129

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Latest arrest hints at larger European terror ring

Arutz Sheva Staff

French officials said Friday they had foiled a terror attack by a suspect who had been convicted in Belgium alongside Abdelhamid Abaaoud, suspected ringleader of November's Islamic State (ISIS) terror attacks in Paris.

French national Reda Kriket, 34, was arrested on Thursday in Argenteuil, northwest of Paris, and police uncovered a small quantity of explosives at his home.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the arrest "foiled a planned attack in France, which was at an advanced stage."

Police sources said the suspect had been found guilty in absentia in Brussels in July last year of being part of a network recruiting jihadists to Syria and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Investigations showed Kriket played an important role in financing the network with money from robberies and stolen goods.

Among those who went to Syria through the network were Abaaoud and another Paris attacker, Chakib Akrouh. Abaaoud was among 28 convicted in the Belgian trial and was sentenced to 20 years in absentia.

Brussels, which has emerged as a hotspot for radical Islam in Europe, was hit Tuesday by bombings which left 31 dead at the airport and on the city metro.

Police in Belgium and Paris are still piecing together the potential links between the November attacks and those in Brussels this week.

One of the Paris jihadists, Salah Abdeslam - who was arrested last week in Brussels - has been linked to Brussels suicide bomber brothers Khalid and Ibrahim El Bakraoui. A third bomber still at large, Najim Laachraoui, has been wanted ever since the Paris attacks.

Abaaoud, the "ringleader"

Abaaoud, a 28-year-old Belgian of Moroccan origin, was a notorious jihadist who had appeared in grisly Islamic State group videos and was behind several failed attack plots in Europe.

On November 13 he formed part of a 10-man team of gunmen and suicide bombers that left 130 people murdered in a series of attacks on Paris, with authorities referring to him as the "ringleader."

Abaaoud was killed five days later in a police raid outside Paris, during which Akrouh blew himself up, also killing Abaaoud's female cousin.

Abaaoud and Akrouh were part of the team of jihadists who sprayed Paris restaurants and bars with gunfire on the night of the attacks, murdering 39.

Abaaoud was from the Brussels immigrant district of Molenbeek, which has been thrust into the spotlight for its ties to the Paris attackers and Islamic radicalism.

It is also where Abdeslam was arrested last week after a four-month manhunt.

Kriket

It remains unclear where Kriket fits in, if at all.

Cazeneuve said Kriket had been under surveillance "for several weeks" and that the arrest was also the result of "close and constant cooperation between European services."

"He belongs to a terrorist network that sought to strike our country," the interior minister said.

Cazeneuve said earlier in March that France has foiled at least six potential attacks since jihadists struck in January 2015, murdering 17 people at the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a Jewish supermarket.

Since the beginning of 2016, 75 people have been arrested in France "with links to terrorist activities," 37 have been charged and 28 jailed, he said.

AFP contributed to this report

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/209903

Explosions, gunfire heard as Belgian police mount fresh raids in Brussels

Explosions and gunfire were heard Friday, and three suspects were arrested during police raids across Brussels as police in Belgium and France worked to roll up the ISIS terror cell believed responsible for devastating attacks in each nation's capital.

The flurry of police activity Friday followed a key arrest the night before in France of the suspected ringleader of the Nov. 13 attacks that killed 130 in Paris and have been linked to this week's coordinated bombings in Brussels...

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/03/25/explosions-gunfire-heard-as-belgian-police-mount-fresh-raids-in-brussels.html

This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/7310