Special to WorldTribune.com

LONDON — France has become the latest European Union member to capture an Al Qaida-aligned recruitment cell.

Officials said authorities arrested four suspects in an Al Qaida-aligned recruitment effort for the war in Syria.

The officials said the network was trying to send hundreds of French nationals to fight the regime of President Bashar Assad, some of whom returned to stage attacks in EU states.

“The whole government is mobilized to follow the jihadists, and prevent them from being able to cause harm,” French President Francois Hollande said.

The latest arrests were reported to have taken place on June 2 around
Paris as well as the south of France. This marked the second capture of a
suspected jihad cell in as many months.

“We will not give terrorists a chance,” French Interior Minister Bernard
Cazeneuve said.

Officials said at least 700 French nationals fought in Syria. One of the
suspected fighters, Mehdi Nemmouche, was identified as firing toward the
Jewish Museum in Brussels, in which four people were killed on May 23.

“He spent over a year in Syria, where he seems to have joined the ranks
of combatant groups, jihadist terrorist groups,” French prosecutor Francois
Molins said on June 1.

On May 30, Spain announced the capture of six suspected recruiters and
financiers for Al Qaida. The Spanish Interior Ministry said additional
members of the network were believed to have fled from the North African
coast to Europe.

“The new elements in this investigation draw attention once more to the
problem of the returnees — in other words, the people going to Syria to
participate in combat and return afterward to our country,” Belgian federal
prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said. “All European countries are confronted
at this moment with this problem.”

  Al Qaida recruiting cell captured, Bernard Cazeneuve, Francois Hollande, Mehid Nemmouche, Officials: 700 French nationals fought in Syria