French arrest suspected extremists

PARIS, France -- Eight people suspected of belonging to extremist Islamic groups have been arrested in France.

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They were apprehended by counter-intelligence officers, acting on orders of magistrates probing terrorist threats made against U.S. interests in France. According to French authorities, the U.S. Embassy in Paris was among the possible targets.

French authorities opened a probe into whether U.S. interests in France were under threat from attacks the day before suicide hijackers smashed planes into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington.

The suspects are thought to have had links to Osama bin Laden -- prime suspect for the U.S. hijack attacks.

Police sources said the suspects were arrested after an Algerian man identified as Djamel Begal, being held in the United Arab Emirates, allegedly confessed to planning an attack on the U.S. embassy in Paris.

They said the man being held in UAE gave details of extremists living in Paris and that at least one of them had been in contact with him.

A French judicial source confirmed on Thursday there were indications the Algerian had links to Osama bin Laden.

Reports that Begal is a Frenchman of Algerian origin cannot be confirmed.

At least one of the suspects in France had been in contact with Begal, and others had been under police surveillance since his arrest in July, the sources said.

French officials are planning to fly to the Gulf Arab state to interview the man and would follow this with a request for his extradition to France, the judicial source told Reuters news agency.

The source confirmed the developments were part of the wider, post-attack investigation. An investigating magistrate from France has recently arrived in the United Arab Emirates.

Police are investigating links between the French case, Begal and two arrests last week in Brussels.

According to Belgian authorities, one of the two arrested, a North African, had lists of potential targets, including the U.S. Embassy in Paris.

The Brussels prosecutor's office said the two men believed to have been planning an attack on American interests in Europe were charged Saturday with possession of weapons of war.

The prosecutors said the two face four separate counts, but they would not say what the other charges were.

The two men, who were arrested Sep 13, were members of a radical Muslim group, said Fabienne Laduron, spokeswoman for Brussels prosecutor's office. She said they were not ruling out a connection with Osama bin Laden.

French media also say French counter-intelligence officials alerted U.S. authorities to threats against U.S. interests in France a day before the Sep 11 attacks.