PARIS: French police on Tuesday arrested 14 alleged militants suspected of plotting to help in the escape of the author of a bloody bomb attack on the Paris metro from jail, a judicial official said on Tuesday. Separately, the domestic intelligence service had earlier over the weekend picked up 12 more alleged militants, these being suspected of running a network funnelling French militants to fight in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Anti-terrorist police swooped on several addresses in Paris and its suburbs and in the central region of Cantal on Tuesday, an unidentified official said.
The 14 are suspected of having planned to break out Smain Ait Ali Belkacem, an Algerian who was jailed for life in 2002 after being found guilty of a 1995 bomb attack on a Paris underground station, which wounded 30 people.