French minister thanks Belgium for detaining 7 terror suspects on eve of Olympics opening ceremony

BRUSSELS (AP) — On the eve of the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris, France's interior minister thanked Belgium Thursday for a string of raids that led to the detention of seven people for questioning over suspected terrorist activities.

The Belgian Federal prosecutor's office said that the people detained during 14 raids in towns and cities across the country "are suspected of participating in the activities of a terrorist group, of financing terrorism and preparing a terrorist attack.”

Spokesperson Arnaud d’Oultremont told The Associated Press that investigators had “not yet identified the suspects’ concrete objectives.”

While the targets of the suspected plot were not immediately clear, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin thanked “our Belgian friends who, today, led a judicial operation to protect us.”

He said French authorities were waiting for more details about the raids and said no arrests were made in France as part of the Belgian operation.

Darmanin was speaking as he welcomed representatives of some 1,800 foreign police officers from 44 countries including Belgium who have arrived to help the 250,000 French police and gendarme officers who will protect the Olympics.

Police in Paris have launched a huge security operation to secure the opening ceremony for the Games that draw thousands of athletes and millions of spectators to the city.

Olympic events are being held throughout France, including in the northern city of Lille, just 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the border with Belgium.

A Belgian investigating judge will decide whether the suspects detained will be formally placed under arrest, the prosecutor’s statement said. The raids took place in cities and towns including Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent and Liège.

Belgium is one of several European nations which have been hit hard by extremist attacks in recent years. In October, two Swedish soccer fans were killed in Brussels.

In 2016, 32 people were killed in extremist attacks at the Brussels airport and a subway station in Belgium’s deadliest peacetime violence, part of a wave of attacks in Europe linked to the Islamic State group.

Among those convicted for their role in the 2016 suicide bombing plot was Salah Abdeslam, who is already serving a life sentence without parole in France over his role in attacks that hit Paris cafes, the Bataclan music venue and France’s national stadium in 2015.

The Paris and Brussels attacks were linked to the same Islamic State network.

Meanwhile, in northern Germany, two Russian nationals were arrested Thursday, accused of supporting a foreign terror organization and violating export laws by allegedly collecting donations for the Islamic State group. The pair are accused of joining a group in the summer of 2022 that aimed to collect money for the group in Germany and other European countries, German federal prosecutors said.

There was no immediate indication the arrests were linked to the Belgian raids.