March 11, 2013

(JTA) — Three men suspected of planning a terrorist attack inspired by Toulouse killer Mohammed Merah were arrested.

The suspects, who were not named, were arrested last week in Marignane and Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer near Marseille, Francois Molins of the Paris Prosecutor’s Office said Monday at a news conference. Molins said they were in possession of weapons and a cache of explosives. 

“The group was capable of committing a terrorist bomb attack on French soil within a short time frame, probably within a few days,” he said. 

Surveillance of their activities showed the men were “radical jihadists glorifying Mohammed Merah,” Molins said, referring to the 23-year-old Islamist radical who last March 19 killed three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school in Toulouse. Days earlier, Merah killed three French soldiers in two attacks.

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