Eight days after the police shot dead the self-confessed killer of four Jews and three French paratroopers in southwestern France, elite units on Friday raided localities in several parts of the country and detained 17 people described as Islamic militants. In the early hours, officers raided addresses in Toulouse — where the gunman, Mohammed Merah, 23, was slain after a 30-hour siege last week — in the Paris region and in southern and western cities including Nantes, French media reports said. President Nicolas Sarkozy said Kalashnikov assault rifles had been seized in the raids, which, he told Europe 1 radio, “are going to continue” and would lead to “a certain number of people” being expelled from France.
Investigating judges on Sunday had already filed preliminary murder and terrorism charges against Mr. Merah’s older brother, saying that the killer acted with his guidance. The brother, Abdelkader Merah, 29, was described by the police as an Islamic radical who reportedly had ties to at least one jihadist network. Although Mohammed Merah told the police that he had acted alone, investigators believe that he operated “under the influence of his brother,” said Élisabeth Allannic, a spokeswoman for the office of the prosecutor in Paris, which handles terrorism cases.
Read more: NY Times
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