Terror Crackdown in Europe: Raids in Belgium, France and Germany
Raids occurred in France, Germany and Belgium, authorities said.
— -- Twelve suspects were detained for questioning in connection to last week’s attacks in Paris, a spokeswoman with France’s public prosecutor confirmed to ABC News.
Unrelated anti-terrorism raids also occurred in Germany and Belgium, as European authorities rushed to thwart more attacks by people with links to Islamic extremists in the Mideast.
Today’s raid in France involved people believed to be linked to Amedy Coulibaly, who’s suspected in the fatal shooting of a police officer, as well as an attack on a kosher market in which four civilians died, the spokeswoman said.
French and German authorities arrested at least 14 other people today suspected of links to the Islamic State group. Thirteen more were detained in Belgium with two related arrests in France in an anti-terror sweep following a firefight Thursday in the eastern Belgian city of Verviers.
Belgium Federal Prosecutor Eric Van Der Sypt called the raid an "important blow for terrorism in Belgium."
News of the anti-terrorism developments came as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited France, meeting with top officials to express America's solidarity with the French people amid recent violence. The three-day crime wave left 20 people, including the suspected gunmen, dead.
"I think you know that you have the full and heartfelt condolences of the American people and I know you know that we share the pain and the horror of everything that you went through," Kerry said as he greeted French President Francois Hollande. “Our hearts are with you.”
Kerry shared a hug with Hollande. The politicians later laid a wreath at the market, one of two sites of last week’s near-simultaneous standoffs.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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