French Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced in Paris that police have broken up a terror ring plotting an attack in France after taking into custody seven suspects in Strasbourg and Marseille. The Muslims, aged 29-37, five French citizens and two others from Morocco and Afghanistan, had been plotting the attack on France for several months.
Six of the terrorists were unknown to intelligence services. One of them worked for the Strasbourg city government on special events.
The people financing the alleged attack plot were arrested in June, while the arrests last Sunday targeted the operational team. Both groups were under orders from unidentified commanders in Syria. Weapons were also seized in Sunday's arrests.
The arrests came just five days before the opening of Strasbourg's famed Xmas market, which attracts tourists from across Europe and was the target of a failed extremist plot in 2000 by Algerian and French militants. Mayor Roland Ries said the case had no direct link to the market, so the event will open as usual on Friday under heavy security.
France remains under a state of emergency imposed after deadly Islamic State attacks on Paris last year. French police have detained 418 people this year in terrorism investigations.
“In the face of a threat that remains very high in France, everything is being done, at every moment, to protect the French,” President Francois Hollande said in a statement about the new arrests.