Sunday, November 15, 2015

Pre-Dawn Counterterrorism Raids Launched Across France — #ParisAttacks #Toulouse

Telegraph UK is reporting, "Paris attacks: Pre-dawn anti-terror raids launched across country • French jets unleash 'massive' airstrike on Isil in Raqqa • Europe-wide manhunt for suspect on run."

And at the Guardian UK, "Paris attacks: anti-terrorism raids across France as hunt for Salah Abdeslam continues – live":
What we know about the anti-terrorism raids

Information is still patchy but here is what we have gathered from French media reports:

French police are hunting Salah Abdeslam and others believed to have been involved in orchestrating the attacks on Paris on Friday.
It is not certain that the raids in the early hours of Monday morning are directly linked to the attacks on the capital.

Raids are reported to have taken place in Toulouse, Grenoble, Jeumont (on the French-Belgian border), and the Paris suburb of Bobigny.

Reports say at least three people have been arrested in Toulouse, and weapons possibly seized, with further arrests in Grenoble.
In Jeumont, streets were closed off around a building that was being searched. Searches were also carried out in homes in Bobigny.

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Anti-terrorism raids and the hunt for suspects

French police continue to hunt for Salah Abdeslam – believed to be one of three brothers involved in Friday night’s attack, who is on the run – and others thought to have been involved in orchestrating the attacks on Paris on Friday.

Overnight raids have taken place in Toulouse, Grenoble, Jeumont (on the French-Belgian border), and the Paris suburb of Bobigny. It is not certain that the raids in the early hours of Monday morning were directly linked to the attacks, but they were carried out under the national state of emergency declared by president François Hollande.

Several arrests have been reported across the locations, with buildings searched. Weapons were reportedly seized in Toulouse...
ADDED:
My colleague Kim Willsher in Paris has more on the overnight raids:

French police and gendarmes carried out a series of raids across the country overnight. From early reports it appears most were part of a general “preventative” anti-terrorist swoop as part of the country’s state of emergency and not directly linked to the search for the perpetrators of the Paris attacks.

The decree made by the French council of ministers at an emergency meeting after the Paris attacks, relating to the first paragraph of the 1955 law on a “state of emergency”, which gives the authorities extraordinary powers to order home searches “day or night”.

In Toulouse, French media reported a “preventative operation” in and around the area that was home to Mohamed Merah, known as the “ride-by killer” who gunned down several soldiers, then attacked children at a Jewish school, murdering a a total of seven people over several days before dying in a police shoot-out in 2012.

At least three people have been taken into police custody. Reports say these were “administrative searches” on properties as part of a general anti-terrorist operation and not part of the Paris attack investigation. Police seized “illegal substances” including cannabis, and one weapon.

In Grenoble and around, Le Dauphiné Libéré newspaper is reporting that units of gendarmes carried out an anti-terrorist operation at around 15 sites during which “more than half a dozen people were arrested and arms seized”. The paper said the operation, which lasted an hour, was part of a national swoop.

Another local newspaper in the north of France in the Pas de Calais region is reporting a raid at the town of Jeumont near the border with Belgium. Reports suggest gendarmes in “around 50 vans” swooped on the town, but it is not known whether the raid is directly linked to the Paris attacks, or being carried out as part of a general operation in France.

There was another overnight operation by gendarmes at Bobigny a suburb of Paris. Again details are sketchy...
More, "Paris attacks: French police launch raids as military strikes Isis in Syria."

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