Tag Archives: France

Officials are denying that a ransom was paid for the recent release of four French hostages held captive for three years by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb; reports allege that a ransom of $26 million was paid. A negotiator from Niger, former Tuareg rebel Mohamed Akotey, is said to have been instrumental in securing […]

President Hollande said he ordered the recent large-scale joint operation in Mali to help stabilize the country for elections in late November, and warned of the influence of Islamist terrorists evidenced by recent suicide attacks against Chadian peacekeeping troops. Bernard Squarcini, the former head of French intelligence said he was “astonished” that the prime minister […]

Prime Minister Ayrault disclosed that two French journalists, Pierre Torrès and Nicolas Hénin, are being held hostage in Syria since disappearing in Aleppo on June 22. Two other French journalists, Didier Francois and Edouard Elias, disappeared on June 6 in Aleppo, a city under the control of al Qaeda forces.

Naamen Meziche, a French national of Algerian origin suspected of links to al Qaeda plots against the US and Europe, was arrested on arrival in France after being extradited from Pakistan. Meziche had been arrested in Pakistan in May 2012 with three other French jihadists, who were extradited to France in April.

Intelligence agents arrested a 21-year-old woman at her apartment in the Belleville district of Paris on suspicion of links to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. She is said to be a reader of AQAP’s magazine Inspire. The arrest is the first stemming from an investigation that began in March into a suspected terrorist plot. […]

President Hollande said France supports arming the Syrian rebels in a controlled manner so they do not end up in the hands of Islamists. A French Muslim convert was arrested in the Calvados region on terror charges for serving as administrator of the radical Islamist website Ansar al Haqq and as a translator of al […]