French police detain six in counterterrorism effort
French counterterrorism police have arrested six people as part of a probe into the alleged recruitment of militants, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve says.
The minister said in a statement that the Sunday raid was carried out on an order by anti-terrorism magistrates in Paris after a probe opened in January last year into "conspiracy to commit a terrorist act and financing of terrorism."
"This new raid takes place five days after the detention for similar motives of eight people in the Paris and Lyon regions, of whom five were charged on Saturday, and four [were] remanded in custody," Cazeneuve said in his statement.
The detainees, all in their 30s, are suspected of handling questionable money transfers and having recruited militants to conduct terror acts.
Five people are reportedly held in the southern city of Albi and the other in the southwest of France.
The Sunday raid came after French police raided houses and detained five men in southern France on January 27 on similar anti-terrorism bids.
The five detainees, aged 26-44, are suspected of being part of “a particularly dangerous and organized network” that recruited and dispatched French nationals to Syria and Iraq to fight alongside the ISIL Takfiri militants.
France is still on high alert in the wake of the January 7 attack on the office of the weekly magazine, Charlie Hebdo. The terrorist attack and the following incidents in the Paris region claimed the lives of 20 people including three gunmen and left France in huge shock and fear.
France Defense Ministry has deployed 10,000 troops to guarantee the security across the country with most of them guarding sensitive locations including the religious centers.
According to reports, some 1,000 French nationals from a wide range of backgrounds are estimated to have left the European country to join the Takfiri militants in Iraq and Syria. Some 400 of them are thought to be currently operating on the ground, while almost 50 were killed.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said authorities have to monitor nearly 3,000 people involved in "terrorist networks."
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