BRUSSELS (AP) – Anti-terror raids in France and Belgium netted eight more suspects on Tuesday as Paris urged its European Union partners to step up the fight against terror financing with new measures to make transactions more transparent.
Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that raids in southern France detained five people and broke up “one more network” in a small town that has seen several youths leave to fight in Syria and Iraq.
He pledged the country’s “total mobilization” against terrorism would continue unabated after attacks around Paris earlier this month by three Islamic radicals left 20 people dead, including the gunmen.
In western Belgium, authorities detained three men and found a cache of arms in an operation linked to a terror threat, said prosecutor spokeswoman Karlien Ververken.
The detention could not immediately be linked to a raid in the eastern town of Verviers earlier this month that left two suspects dead and later put seven more behind bars. Belgian authorities said that raid had averted an imminent major terrorist attack against police and their offices.