French police swoop on more suspected Islamists

French members of the French National Police Intervention Group (GIPN) arrest a suspected radical islamist groups member in Roubaix, northern France, Wednesday, April 4, 2012. French police rounded up 10 people in their second country-wide sweep in several days Wednesday, leading to criticism that President Nicolas Sarkozy is ramping up raids to win votes in a tight election. The arrests are part of a high-profile crackdown on radical Islamists in the wake of attacks on soldiers and a Jewish school. (AP Photo)

PARIS (Reuters) - Police arrested 10 suspected Islamist militants in dawn raids across France on Wednesday after a shooting spree by an al Qaeda-inspired gunman prompted President Nicolas Sarkozy to order a security clampdown, just ahead of an April 22 election.

The DCRI domestic intelligence service, supported by elite police commandos, carried out arrests in the southern cities of Marseille and Valence, two smaller towns in the southwest, and in the northeastern town of Roubaix, a police source said.

Interior Minister Claude Gueant pledged there would be no respite in France's pursuit of militants.

"The pressure on radical Islam and the threats it represents will not stop," he said.

The raids, which followed Friday's arrest of 19 suspects, came 13 days after police snipers shot dead 23-year-old gunman Mohamed Merah, who had killed three Jewish school children, a rabbi and three soldiers in a spate of attacks around Toulouse.

"Those arrested have a similar profile to Mohamed Merah," a local police source said. "They are isolated individuals who are self-radicalized."

He said the suspects were tracked on Islamist forums expressing extreme views and were preparing to travel to areas including Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Sahel belt of West Africa to wage jihad (holy war). Some of those arrested had already visited these areas, the source said.

Sarkozy, who faces an uphill task to win re-election in an April-May two-round vote, has vowed to root out any form of militancy following Merah's killing spree.

Television channels showed images of the early morning raids, with police taking suspects away handcuffed and with their faces covered. Officials also confiscated bags.

Some French media had been tipped off about the raids and police did not cordon off the areas ensuring mass coverage.

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