7 held for backing terrorism
2005-06-22 21:39
Paris - French police are holding seven people on suspicion of providing support for the Islamist insurgency in Iraq, said officials on Wednesday.
The seven - aged between 20 and 35 - were detained on Tuesday in the central city of Limoges and the southern city of Montpellier.
Witnesses said in Limoges that police also raided a shop and took away a quantity of material in a cardboard box.
According to Le Figaro newspaper, some of the seven were suspected of having telephone contact with members of the Iraqi group, Ansar al-Islam.
The arrests were carried out by the domestic intelligence service DST on the instructions of anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere, who was investigating the recruitment of French volunteers to fight against the United States army in Iraq.
- AFP