Paris police have arrested five men they believe were plotting terror attacks next week and were working with Islamic State figures in Iraq or Syria, according to a report.
The men were arrested on Sunday, according to the Associated Press. Four were arrested in Strasbourg and the fifth in Marseille, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Friday.
The leader in Strasbourg had been planning an attack for Dec. 1, although they had not yet chosen the specific target. They had received remote guidance from Islamic State leaders and had “a clear will to find and to identify targets to commit an act in the very short term,” AP reported.
The men “had common instructions to obtain weapons, instructions given by a person from the Iraqi-Syrian zone through encrypted applications popular among terrorists,” Molins said.
The four Strasbourg suspects are long-time friends and were not in touch with the Marseille suspect. The four arrested are two French citizens, a Franco-Tunisian and a Franco-Moroccan, all in their mid-30s. The man in Marseille is a 46-year-old Moroccan.
