4 processed as migrants Oct 3

France boosts security at churches

PARIS, Dec 19, (AFP): Two suicide bombers who died in the Paris attacks and two men held in Austria for suspected links to the operation were all processed as migrants on a Greek island on the same day, a source close to the probe told AFP.

Two suspects in the Nov 13 attacks were arrested over the weekend at a refugee centre in the western city of Salzburg after a tip-off from French police, said a separate source in Austria.

The Austrian source said the men were Algerian and Pakistani.

Fingerprint analysis has shown the suspects were processed among migrants arriving on the Greek island of Leros on Oct 3, according to a French source close to the investigation.

Two of the three suicide bombers who blew themselves up outside the French national stadium on the night of the attacks were processed on Leros on the same day, the source said.

The Stade de France bombings kicked off a night of horror in the French capital as jihadists hit a series of nightspots, killing 130 people and injuring 350.

Seven attackers blew themselves up or were killed by police in the course of the evening, five of whom have been identified.

The two unidentified Stade de France attackers have been tracked back to two fake Syrian passports used to enter Europe.

A suspected ringleader of the attacks, Belgian jihadist Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was killed in a police raid a few days later and suspected accomplices have been arrested in Belgium and Austria.

Another jihadist, Salah Abdeslam, who was believed to have played a key logistical role in the attacks, has evaded police across Europe who have been hunting for him.

A French police source said Abdeslam may have had links to the two men arrested in Austria, which he is known to have visited on Sept 9.

According to Austrian authorities, he was pulled over in a routine traffic check on his way from Hungary to Germany. With him in the car, which had Belgian number plates, were two unidentified men. They were all allowed to continue on their way.

Tracking

The Salzburger Nachrichten daily on Thursday said investigators have reconstructed Abdeslam’s journey in his hired Mercedes thanks to the car’s anti-theft tracking device.

The paper said he drove through Austria to the Hungarian-Serbian border, and was pulled over again on the return leg of the journey — this time by police in the southern German state of Bavaria.

It said he picked up two men in Hungary — Soufiane K. and Samir R. — and that both had fake Belgian passports.

Earlier this month, French sources said Abdeslam was in Hungary on Sept 17, meaning he may have made several trips in the run-up to the attacks.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has recommended that security be heightened in and around churches at Christmas, following deadly jihadist attacks in Paris last month.

In a note sent to police and local authorities, the minister called on parish authorities to reinforce security measures next week, police sources said Friday.

A similar recommendation went out earlier this year following a failed attempt to target at least one church in the Paris area in April.

Cazeneuve cited the Nov 13 attacks in and around Paris in which a total of 130 people were killed and 350 injured, adding that the churches had “symbolic force” as potential targets.

On April 19 Sid Ahmed Ghlam, an Algerian IT student, was arrested in Paris on suspicion of killing a woman who was found shot dead in the passenger seat of her car, and of planning an attack on a church in the Paris suburb of Villejuif.

Prosecutors found documents about Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State at his home.

The jihadist violence began in January with the assault by French nationals against satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

Cazeneuve also called for the number of entrances to churches to be restricted and “to pay particular attention to abandoned packages or bags”.

GENEVA:

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The Swiss government said Friday it was creating 86 new positions dedicated to combatting terrorism as additional resources were needed to effectively investigate and contain increased security threats.

Swiss counter-terrorism forces have in recent months seen “a sharp rise and diversification” of their workload,” the government said in a statement.

There was a heightened need for counter-terrorism investigations in Geneva, which is home to the United Nations’ European headquarters and which has been on high alert since Dec 10 amid a “terrorist threat”, it said.

Analysis of suspicious communications and intelligence, increased international intelligence coordination and crisis prevention planning as well as security around buildings housing Swiss and foreign interests were all on the rise, the statement said.

It also noted a sharp hike in the number of police investigations into people suspected of supporting terrorist organisations, with 70 such probes currently ongoing, including 33 that had prompted the country’s attorney general’s office to launch prosecution.

“This situation is not expected to improve in the near future,” the statement said.

The new positions would be shared between Switzerland’s national intelligence service, federal police, migration services and the border guards, and the foreign ministry, it said.

It said that without the additional resources, investigations and much needed security measures might not be implemented in a timely manner, which could have “serious consequences for the security of the country and population.”

Authorities in Geneva have been searching possible extremists with links to the Islamic State (IS) group, amid reports that US intelligence had identified a jihadist cell in the city.

In Geneva, which is almost entirely enclosed by France, authorities said the search for possible extremists was being conducted “in the context of the investigation following the Paris attacks”.