French Arrest 10 More in Continued Crackdown on Radicals
President Nicolas Sarkozy has made combating radical Islamists the centerpiece of his re-election campaign.
| Posted Wednesday, April 4, 2012, at 12:43 PM
Photo by Christophe Guibbad/AFP/Getty Images.
French police arrested at least 10 more suspected radical Islamists early Wednesday morning as part of President Nicolas Sarkozy's nationwide crackdown.
The BBC reports that the raids took place mostly in southern France, but also spanned an area from northern Marseille to southern Roubaix.
Sarkozy announced the launch of a concentrated effort to stem radical Islam in the wake of last month's Toulouse school shootings by self-proclaimed jihadist Mohammed Merah. But French police have been careful to avoid directly linking the raids with the attack on the Jewish school.
The Associated Press explains that Sarkozy's high-profile focus on extremists has left his critics fuming that the raids are a political ploy by the president to win a tight re-election battle.
Wednesday's arrests come only days after Friday’s round up of 13 alleged radicals, of which nine have since been jailed. CNN reports that one of the alleged Islamists, Mohamed Achamlane, is the leader of suspected radical group Forsane Alizza, which has also been linked to Merah.
