World
Greek police reportedly detain 4 alleged extremists, possibly including Belgium suspect
IMAGE: VIRGINIA MAYO/ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATHENS, Greece — Greek police on Saturday detained four suspected extremists, including man believed to be the ringleader of a Belgian jihadi cell.
A Greek police official said the four were arrested separately in Athens, and included a man who matches the description of Abdelhamid Abaaoud — who Belgian authorities suspect was behind a jihadi cell that was dismantled in Belgium on Thursday.
Authorities were going over photos, fingerprints and DNA material sent from Greek police to try to verify whether the person was Abaaoud, according to Greek and Belgian officials, speaking only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of an ongoing investigation.
Greek officials initially thought Abaaoud was in Turkey, but the detained man's name, as well as the cellphone found on him matches descriptions that Greek police received from Belgium, the Greek official said.
The announcement came amid a groundswell of popular antagonism across Europe against radical Islam, stepped-up police efforts to prevent extremist acts and protests against caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad across the Muslim world that have underscored vast cultural differences.
Two suspects were killed in a firefight and a third wounded in a vast anti-terrorism sweep in Belgium on Thursday that netted several returnees from Islamic holy war in Syria. Federal magistrate Eric Van der Sypt said the suspects were within hours of implementing a plan to kill police.
Following Thursday's raids, Belgium raised its national alert level, Reuters reported. It also deployed 150 paratroopers Saturday to support police and guard possible targets, including government buildings. It was the first time in 30 years that authorities used troops to reinforce police, and they said the number of troops could double until a review of the situation next week.
Belgian media reported that investigators were still looking for one man, a Belgian with Moroccan roots who had gone to fight with the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria, and was said to be in Greece. Van der Sypt declined to comment, but expressed "regret that the element of Greece has reached the media."
Meanwhile in France, authorities sought to head off possible civil unrest and glorification of extremism after the country's worst attacks in decades — assenting to quietly bury the two brothers involved in the attack against Paris-based magazine Charlie Hebdo, and banning an anti-Islamist demonstration in Paris.
"We are one country, one people, one France — without distinction by religion, belief or sensibility," President Francois Hollande said in a speech Saturday in south-central France. "An ardent France against those who want to instill among us who-knows-what war of religion."
Authorities have said there is no apparent link between the foiled plots in Belgium and last week's attacks against the magazine and a kosher grocery in Paris, in which brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi and their friend Amedy Coulibaly killed 17 people.
Additional reporting by Mashable
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