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| Police stand guard in front of the Eiffel Tower. Photo by Reuters. |
French police have arrested a total of 12 suspects this week; 9 arrests are the result of a raid on Tuesday in Marseille and Avignon.
Officials have not confirmed whether these arrests are connected to the travel warning issued by the U.S. over the weekend.
The travel advisory issued by the State Department and later by other European countries claims that a Mumbai-style shooting attack is possible in major European cities.
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| Mumbai's Taj Mahal Hotel, a popular hotel for tourists, set ablaze during the 2008 attacks. |
The November 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India involved 10 militants from Al-Qaeda-linked Lashkar-e-Taiba. They targeted areas with a large number of tourists like the Taj Mahal Hotel and Leopold Café, killing 166.
So far, the U.S., U.K., Japan and Sweden have updated travel warnings, and have asked travelers to keep and eye out for and report any suspicious activity.
Police report seizing "some weapons, including a Kalashnikov (rifle) and a pump-action shotgun, as well as ammunition" in one of the Tuesday ant-terror raids.
The other three arrests occurred after the suspects’ cell phone numbers were linked to Ryad Hannouni, a man already under arrested in Naples, Italy for carrying a bomb making kit.
Officials say that the separate arrests aren’t related.
According to Fox News and their unnamed sources, the militants had drawn up a list of places to target including: The Eiffel Tower and the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, and Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate.
Initial frustrations with the travel advisories were blamed on the “vagueness” of the warning. No specific countries, cities, and/or public areas have been identified as a for sure target.
Many travelers, particularly Americans are willing to take the risk considering the circumstances.
And just when the safety finger pointing couldn’t get any worse, on Wednesday, France warned their citizens to exercise caution if traveling to or living in Britain.
According to a message posted on the French Foreign Ministry’s website late Tuesday night, Britain has released reports saying that the UK are at risk for an attack.
Left out of the terrorist alert game is Germany, who are reporting that they are being vigilant, but don’t want to come off as “alarmist”.
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