Iraq fighters sent to Egyptian schools: France

Paris, Feb 17: France yesterday said that a network which recruited people to fight in Iraq, including becoming suicide bombers, had been sending trainees to radical Islamic schools in Egypt before they went to Iraq.

On Wednesday France said its police had arrested eleven people as part of a probe into a suspected recruitment ring.

Nine of those arrested were thought to have links with al Qaeda.

The operation was carried out as a result of a joint investigation with the Belgian authorities. Nine people were also detained in Belgium.

''The recruits were firstly sent to Egypt to learn Arabic and the doctrines of salafism (an Islamic school of thought) in the most radical schools (madrasas), before meeting up, via a cell in Saudi Arabia linked to al Qaeda, with a network organised in Syria to take them to Iraq, to commit terrorist acts notably in the form of suicide attacks,'' the French Justice Ministry said in a statement yesterday.

It said that 6 of the people detained would appear before the Paris prosecutor's office on February 17.

The Justice Ministry said the prosecutor's office planned to open an investigation for ''criminal association with the aim of preparing terrorist acts and financing of a terrorist business''.

Reuters

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