An update on this story. “Suspected extremists charged in France,” from Agence France-Presse, December 21:
Three people detained in and around Paris on suspicion of links to Islamic extremist groups that send fighters to Iraq were charged on Saturday, a judicial source said.
The three, who were charged with “association with criminals with terrorist aims,” were among seven people arrested on Tuesday. The other four have been released.
French intelligence officers and anti-terrorist police first arrested a young Frenchman who had converted to Islam and then hauled in six of his associates.
The arrests were not connected to an incident on Tuesday in which police found dynamite in a Paris department store after an unknown group threatened attacks unless France pulled its troops out of Afghanistan.