Anti-terror police arrest 10

POLICE have arrested 10 people suspected of being Islamist militants in dawn raids across France today.

Security services raided houses in Marseille, Roubaix (Nord-Pas-de-Calais), Carpentras (Vaucluse), Valence (Drôme) and Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantique). Reports said that a French Muslim convert had been arrested in Bon-Encontre, Lot-et-Garonne.

Police said they had been monitoring Islamist web forums and had arrested people who had made several journeys between France and Afghanistan or Pakistan.

While no direct link was made with gunman Mohamed Merah, who killed seven people including three children in attacks in Toulouse and Montauban, he was also known to have made similar journeys.

The arrests come just two days after Interior Minister Claude Guéant expelled three imams and two radical islamists from France. On March 30 17 people were arrested in raids and 13 have been charged with offences related to terrorism.
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