Ramadan terror plot THWARTED: ISIS planned ‘violent’ attack on French palace say police

According to AFP, the suspects had several targets, the unnamed source said, but their overall objective was to launch an attack on security forces, namely those “standing guard outside the Elysée Palace”.

The men, arrested last Friday on suspicion of acquiring weapons “with a view to committing a terrorist act” are currently in provisional detention and awaiting trial. 

The would-be terrorists, who had been under police surveillance since early February, were spotted outside the Elysée Palace in central Paris on a reconnaissance mission shortly before their arrest.

A police station in the gritty suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois in northern Paris was also on their list of targets, according to the source. 

The attack was due to be carried out “in the coming days,” the Paris prosecutor’s office said as it confirmed the foiled terror plot on Monday. 

 

The men reportedly wanted the assault to coincide with the start of Ramadan this weekend.  

“The attack would have targeted security personnel and would have been extremely violent,” according to French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, who added that police had had “sufficient evidence to believe that a major attack was being planned”.

Unaware they were under close surveillance, the suspects, who are said to be members of the Islamic State (ISIS) militant group, drew the noose around their own necks when they started looking for weapons and ammunition online. 

A Kalashnikov assault rifle was found during the raids that led to their arrest, according the France’s Europe 1 radio. 

One of the suspects is a minor currently serving a probationary sentence at an educational facility after being sentenced to three years, two suspended, for attempting to join the ranks of ISIS in Syria, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.  

The other three are known to police for common law offences, according to another source close to the inquiry, which is being handled by the DGSI, France’s domestic intelligence agency.

The minor “successfully hid his persistent radicalisation from educators” and made contact with the other suspects “by electronic means”. 

France has been on high alert since the start of a wave of ruthless attacks began in January 2015, leaving more than 250 people dead and scores injured, with ISIS repeatedly urging its followers to target French soldiers and police. 

At the end of March, Paris police arrested two men, one with mental health problems, on suspicion of planning an attack on a school or police officer. 

Despite the collapse of the group’s self-styled “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria last month, the threat of further attacks inspired by its militants remains high. 

European security chiefs have warned of a new wave of attacks on the bloc from ISIS sleeper cells, believed to be operating independently of the main group. 

Kurdish forces fighting the jihadi group in Syria have also sounded the alarm bells, saying that ISIS was far from being defeated and that the battle was simply entering a new phase.

source: express.co.uk