RPT-French Muslim al Qaeda suspects kept in custody
Source: Reuters
PARIS, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Four of six Muslims being held in France on suspicion of recruiting Islamist fighters for Iraq were remanded in custody on Sunday, a police source said. The men were among a group of seven men and a number of wives who were detained for questioning this week as part of a Franco-Belgian operation against a group suspected of having links with al Qaeda. The women and one man held in France had already been freed. Two other men were released on Sunday but remained under investigation, the source said. The six men are suspected of aiding and abetting a terrorist organisation while three are additionally suspected of financing terrorism. All are French nationals. The French Justice Ministry said on Friday that it believed a recruitment ring had been sending trainees to Egypt to learn Arabic and radical Islamic doctrine, then on to Syria, with the help of a cell in Saudi Arabia linked to al Qaeda. From Syria, another network would take the recruits to Iraq to commit "terrorist acts, notably in the form of suicide attacks", the ministry said.
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