France charges 4 suspects linked to Mali jihadists
French legionnaires who parachuted onto Timbuktu on January 28, 2013 to recapture the northern Malian desert city walk on January 30 at Timbuktu airport to board a plane to return to their base in Abidjan. French troops on January 30 entered Kidal, the last Islamist bastion in Mali’s north after a whirlwind Paris-led offensive, as France urged peace talks to douse ethnic tensions targeting Arabs and Tuaregs.
A French judge has filed charges against four men who are accused of having ties to an African jihadist group, reports the BBC.
The men, three from France and one from Mali, are being investigated for possible criminal association with a terrorist enterprise.
Two of the men are still being held and two have been released but must report to authorities, according to AP.
All four of the men were detained near Paris on Tuesday.
According to the BBC, the men were arrested in connection with a French national who was arrested on the Niger -Mali border in August while trying to join an Islamic militant group.
"We have to continue dismantling these networks that want to either commit attacks on our soil or take individuals overseas to carry out jihad," French Interior Minister Manuel Valls told the BBC last week.
France officials are warning of potential jihadists at home after they started a military campaign in Mali aimed at preventing radicals from imposing an Islamic state, reports AP.
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