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PARIS (Reuters) - French police commandos arrested 19 people suspected of radical Islamist activity in Friday morning raids in several cities including Toulouse, scene of the killings of seven people by an al Qaeda-inspired gunman earlier this month.
President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is waging an uphill battle for re-election, said more raids would follow.
"There will be further operations, allowing us to expel a number of people who have no business in the country," he said in an interview on Europe 1 radio.
Gunman Mohamed Merah was killed by police snipers just over a week ago after shooting dead three Jewish school children, a rabbi and three soldiers in attacks around Toulouse, turning internal security into a bigger campaign issue ahead of the presidential election.
Polls showed that more than 70 percent of voters approved of Sarkozy's handling of the Toulouse shootings, which reduced his chief rival, Socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande, to the role of bystander ahead of the two-round election on April 22 and May 6.
A police source said about 20 had been arrested in raids in Toulouse in the southwest, Nantes in western France and also in the Paris region and southeast France. Sarkozy put the number of arrests at 19.
Several television channels showed images of the early morning raids. Commandos were seen bashing down doors, smashing windows, and taking suspects away with handcuffed and with their faces covered
French Interior Minister Claude Gueant said five rifles, three Kalashnikovs, four automatic handguns and a bullet-proof vest had been found among other items.
"These are people who ... claimed they were acting for an extremely violent, jihadist and combat ideology," Gueant told reporters after meeting Muslim associations in Paris.
"They had a paramilitary type of training," he said without confirming if those arrested were preparing attacks.
The swoops, carried out by the RAID police commando unit and anti-terrorist specialists, were not directly related to Merah's killing spree, according to the police source.
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