Tag Archives: France

A French court ordered that Mehdi Nemmouche, a French-Algerian man accused of killing four people in an attack at a Jewish museum in Brussels, be extradited to Belgium. Nemmouche, a jihadist who spent a year fighting in Syria before the attack, is seeking to have the extradition order quashed. Authorities are investigating the disappearance of […]

French authorities have deported Ahmed B., a Tunisian Salafist who had lived in France for several years, following his arrest earlier this month in Grenoble on suspicion of recruiting jihadists who were trained in Tunisia and then sent to Syria to fight. The first deportation of a jihadist recruiter under new French legislation was that […]

The Foreign Ministry announced the arrest today of four people in Paris and southern France who are part of a jihadist recruiting network that sends fighters to Syria. On May 30, French authorities in Marseille arrested Mehdi Nemmouche, a suspect in the killing of three people at a Jewish museum in Brussels on May 24, […]

Foreign Minister Le Drian announced that France will deploy 3,000 soldiers to the Sahel, while maintaining 1,000 in Mali, to combat Islamist militants. The additional troops will be based in Niamey, Niger’s capital, where French drones are based; in Burkina Faso; and in Chad; the logistics hub will be in Ivory Coast. He said the […]

The Defense Ministry denied a report that the government paid a ransom of $18 million for the release of four French journalists who were were kidnapped in Syria by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham, an al Qaeda offshoot, in June 2013. According to the report, Defense Minister LeDrian took the ransom money […]

Interior Minister Cazeneuve will submit an antiradicalization plan to address the threat of jihadism at home and abroad; some 700 French citizens or nationals are thought to have fought in Syria. President Hollande was urged to allow more Syrian refugees into France.

A French court questioned and released Souad Merah, the sister of al Qaeda-linked Toulouse shooter Mohamed Merah, who killed seven people in 2012. She had spoken approvingly of Merah’s actions and of Osama bin Laden. So far three people have been charged in the investigation, including Merah’s brother Abdelkader; 30 people have been detained and […]