French arrests in sweep against radical jihadists

French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve described arrest. Picture: Getty

The arrests come as investigators question a suspected French jihadist who had spent time in Syria.

Mehdi Nemmouche was arrested on Friday in connection with the death of three people at the Belgian museum, carrying firearms, ammunition and a video claiming responsibility for the 24 May attack.

French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Nemmouche was arrested minutes after he set foot on French soil during a customs check.

Western governments are increasingly alarmed about fighters returning from Syria – many having come back radicalised and with newfound knowledge and weapons The numbers shift constantly – people cross the border freely from Turkey and, with European passports, return home just as easily.

Their journey to Syria itself is getting simpler, as networks of recruiters take care of travel arrangements and even training once potential fighters cross into the civil war-torn country.

The arrests yesterday, which prosecutors said were not linked to the Jewish museum shootings, were one such network that Cazeneuve said operated in the Paris region and the south of France.

“We will not give terrorists a chance,” Mr Cazeneuve told Europe 1 radio.

Between 1,000 and 1,500 Europeans may be currently fighting in Syria against president Bashar Assad, according to Charles Lister, an analyst with Brookings Doha Centre, who drew the estimate from governments and other sources.

It is not yet known whether the attack on the Jewish museum was ordered from within Syria or was simply an individual act.

So far, there has been no evidence that the radical Muslim rebel groups in Syria are looking to expand their battle.

“The most important question is whether he was working as a lone wolf or whether he was working under an organisation in the Middle East,” Mr Lister said.

In a one-minute rampage that deeply shook Europe’s Jewish community, a gunman opened fire at the Brussels museum.

In addition to the fatalities, another person was gravely wounded.

Authorities raised anti-terror alert levels as they searched for the attacker.

But it was ultimately a customs inspection in the French port city of Marseille that turned up Nemmouche, as he disembarked from a bus coming from Amsterdam.

The suspect, a French-born 29-year-old from the northern city of Roubaix, had a revolver and a retractable automatic weapon like those used in the Brussels attack, and ballistics analyses were under way to determine if they were the same weapons.

At least one of the weapons was wrapped up in a white sheet scrawled with the name of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an extremist group fighting in Syria.

The group has also carried out attacks in Iraq.

The Brussels killings led Belgian officials to boost their anti-terror measures, and raised fears of rising anti-Semitism.

Cazeneuve said France had already raised its anti-terror measures, and notably had increased security at Jewish sites.

In 2012, a French-born radical Muslim attacked a Jewish school during a rampage in the south that left seven people dead. The attacker, Mohammed Merah, was killed in a shoot out with law enforcement.

“I understand that Jews in France are worried,” Mr Cazeneuve said.

Late last month, French prosecutors opened a terrorism probe into Merah’s sister and raided her home in the southern city of Toulouse.

She was not there – authorities believe she fled to Syria.