More than two dozen arrested in counter-terrorism sweeps in Europe
Officials arrested at least 29 people and searched numerous sites in counter-terrorism sweeps overnight in Belgium, France and Germany that left two suspects dead after clashes with police in the Belgian city of Verviers, federal prosecutors said Friday.
Belgian officials claimed to have prevented a “large-scale” attack after 17 people were killed in three days of terror in France last week.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry met in Paris with French President and visited the sites of the attacks, the country’s worst in decades.
Paris is at its highest terrorism alert level, and police evacuated the Gare de l'Est train station Friday after a bomb threat, French broadcaster BFM TV reported. No explosives were found.
In Belgium, 13 people were taken into custody overnight -- one in Verviers, nine in Molenbeek, two in Brussels and one in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, police said. Two more Belgian suspects were arrested in France, and prosecutors said they are seeking to extradite those individuals.
They stressed that their investigation was not related to last week’s attacks in Paris in which two brothers, Cherif and Said Kouachi, stormed the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and killed 12 people.
A fellow attacker, Amedy Coulibaly, is believed to have killed a policewoman and later took hostages at a kosher supermarket, killing four. All three assailants were killed in clashes with police.
“This operation last night was not part of a large-scale European operation,” federal prosecutor Eric Van Der Sypt said at a news briefing in Brussels. “It was a Belgian cell in Belgium.”
Police searches recovered all the trappings of a terrorist plot: four AK-47 rifles, ammunition, explosives, fake documents, cellphones, walkie-talkies, large sums of money and police uniforms, prosecutors said.
“We know that the aim was to kill police officers on public roads and in police offices, and we found police uniforms, which supports that,” Van Der Sypt said, adding that authorities believe that the suspects were within hours of attacking.
Prosecutors declined to comment on reports that the suspects, some of whom had returned from fighting in Syria, had planned to behead a police officer. They also refused to identify those killed in clashes with police or their nationalities.
Verviers is a town of about 55,000 people on the border with Germany. Police said they also conducted searches in Molenbeek, Anderlecht, Brussels, Berchem-Sainte-Agathe and Liedekerke.
Jewish schools in Brussels and Antwerp closed Friday after officials said they were a “potential target” for Muslim extremists, reported Belgian news site Joods Actueel. In Berlin, police arrested two people Friday morning after searches related to an “Islamic movement,” the BFM TV reported, citing German police.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said that he might call on the army to strengthen security in the country, not policing but carrying out monitoring missions.
"At present, we have no knowledge of a concrete and specific threat," he said, according to the Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir. "But we know that zero risk does not exist, either in Belgium or elsewhere."
Calling on the army is one of a dozen new measures agreed to by lawmakers to counter terrorism, Michel said. Others include withdrawing passports of suspects who pose a risk to public safety, freezing the assets of those suspected of financing terrorism, strengthening penalties for terrorist activity, improving monitoring of those believed to be foreign fighters and training prison staff to combat radicalization of inmates.
In a radio interview, Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders stressed the importance of European countries sharing information.
"I think this is the best way to prevent and not repeat what we experienced last year at the Jewish Museum in Brussels with Mehdi Nemmouche and what we have come to know in Paris," he said. Nemmouche, a French Algerian extremist, opened fire at the museum, killing four.
In France, nine men and three women suspected of having links to Coulibaly were taken into custody overnight as police conducted searches in the southern suburbs of Paris.
“We want to know exactly what they were doing with Mr. Coulibaly,” said Christophe Crepin, a French police union spokesman.
He would not say where the arrests took place, although French television service BFM TV said they occurred in Essonne, Grigny and Fleury-Merogis.
Coulibaly, 32, grew up in a notorious housing project in Grigny called La Grande-Borne, officials said. He also served time at a prison in Fleury-Merogis, the nation’s largest and a known breeding ground for extremists, where he is believed to have converted to Islam and met Cherif Kouachi.
Among those arrested was a man who supplied a car to Coulibaly, the French news channel Itele reported. Police tracked down the man based on DNA found in the car, a Renault Megane, according to BFM TV.
Belgian authorities said they are also investigating possible links between Coulibaly and a man they arrested Thursday in the southern city of Charleroi on charges related to the illegal trade in weapons.
Spain and Turkey are also taking part in the hunt for the Paris attackers' accomplices. The Kouachi brothers claimed allegiance to Al Qaeda in Yemen; Coulibaly to Islamic State.
Kerry's visit to France came after the Obama administration apologized for not sending higher-level representatives to a massive unity march in Paris on Sunday.
Kerry and Hollande laid wreaths Friday outside the offices of Charlie Hebo and the kosher supermarket targeted last week.
Hollande thanked Kerry for U.S. support in the crisis, saying, "You've been victims yourself of an exceptional terrorist attack on Sept. 11. You know what it means for a country. ... We must find together appropriate responses."
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who was accompanying Kerry, said authorities were working together to combat terrorism.
“Given the risk and reality of international terrorism, the action against it must also be international -- especially a cooperation with the technology we have and the Americans,” he told BFM TV.
Asked whether the counter-terrorism raids overnight showed France was at risk of further attacks, Fabius said, “We’re verifying everything. The services are all mobilized.”
At the same time, he added, “we must continue to live. The terrorists want us to change the way we live.”
A funeral service was held in Paris on Friday for Stephane Charbonnier, 47, a slain cartoonist and editor of Charlie Hebdo killed in the attack.
Protesters in several other countries rallied against the magazine, which is known for lampooning the Muslim Prophet Muhammad and other religious figures.
Scores of people in Istanbul, Turkey, held funeral prayers for the Kouachi brothers. In Karachi, Pakistan, students clashed with police, and an Agence France-Presse photographer was shot and injured, the Associated Press reported. Demonstrators also turned out in the Algerian capital, Algiers.
Twitter: @mollyhf
Copyright © 2015, Los Angeles TimesUPDATE
10:16 a.m.: This article has been updated with the counter-terrorism operations in France, Secretary of State John F. Kerry's visit and protests in Turkey, Pakistan and Algeria.
6:55 a.m.: This article has been updated with comments from the Belgian prime minister.
5:19 a.m.: This article has been updated with additional details and background.
3:43 a.m.: This article has been updated with details on the arrests.
3:34 a.m.: This article has been updated with information from Belgian news site Joods Actueel.
Source http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-terror-arrests-belgium-20150116-story.html#page=1
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