French police conducted a massive series of anti-terrorism raids in the early hours of Monday morning, just hours after the nation’s air force pounded Islamic State targets in Syria.
The coordinated raids span the entire country — from Calais on the northern coast, to Toulouse in the south and Grenoble near the Swiss border, Britain’s Daily Mail reported.
The Guardian reported that further raids took place in a Parisian suburb of Bobigny and in Jeumont, near the Belgian border.
Photos from Toulouse showed dozens of police vans running through the city in the wee hours, and French media reported that at least three people were taken into custody there.
“The forces involved in the raids are anti-terrorism units: RAID (Recherche Assistance Intervention Dissuasion) and GIPN (Groupes d’Intervention de la Police Nationale). Both are tactical units of the French national police force,” the Guardian reported.
The Grenoble operation was a broad dragnet that resulted in “more than a half dozen arrests” with seizures of both weapons and money, the French website LeDauphine.com said.
The raids were carried out under the emergency powers claimed under the French Constitution by President Francois Hollande within hours of Friday’s attack, the site reported.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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