France’s top security official has said five people have been arrested on suspicion of belonging to a ring that recruits young women to join Islamic militants in Syria.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the arrests were made on Tuesday (September 16th) and Wednesday morning in the Lyon area in central France.
Young French men and women make up the largest contingent of European jihadis fighting in Syria, and security officials fear they will use newfound fighting skills — and European Union passports — to carry out attacks back home. A Frenchman who fought with the Islamic State group is suspected of attacking a Jewish museum in Brussels in May, killing four people with a Kalashnikov.
About 2,000 Europeans are fighting in Iraq and Syria, security officials say.
