People representing diverse political ideologies march, in Moscow, to call for an end to the Chechen war

PARIS, December 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - French police and intelligence claimed thwarting an attack on the Russian embassy in Paris and other Russian targets with a series of arrests this month of nine people, all of them of North African Arab extraction, suspected of links with al-Qaeda.

The nine suspects are in custody after two raids in tough northern Paris suburbs and an arrest near the Spanish border, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP) Friday, December 27.

The actions were ordered by anti-terrorist authorities after an investigation into rings allegedly responsible for recruiting Muslims to help Chechens in their war against Russian occupation forces.

The French Interior Ministry claimed in a statement that the group of eight men and one woman had been "operational" and "wanted to carry out attacks against Russian interests and especially the Russian embassy".

It alleged that the group planned the actions to avenge the Moscow-hostage taking in late October, during which 41 Chechen fighters were killed by Russian special forces.

More than 100 of the 800 hostages died from the effects of the a poisonous gas injected into the theater by the Russian troops before storming the building.

The ministry statement said the arrests meant the group was "dismantled and the plan it was preparing thwarted."

It claimed that three of the men - identified as Menad Benchellali, Nouredine Merabet and Merouane Benahmed - had trained in "terrorist camps" in the Pankisi Gorge in Georgia, "where they mixed with Chechen fighters and particularly with senior operational members of al-Qaeda, who are specialists in toxic substances."

Benchelli was the older brother of Mourad Benchellali, a French citizen being held by the U.S. military at its base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba after being captured late last year in Afghanistan, according to a French judicial source.

He and Benahmed were arrested by elite police and domestic intelligence agents on Tuesday, December 24, along with another of the men, all in their 30s, in the northern Paris suburb of Romainville.

The judicial source said that the four had arrived very recently in France, probably after the first round of arrests, on December 16, in the nearby La Courneuve suburb that resulted in the arrest and detention of three of the men and the woman.

Reports said they were three Algerians and a Moroccan, and authorities alleged that police had found material that could be used to make bombs in their residence.

Merbet, 28, was arrested last Saturday on the French-Spanish border.

He was formally placed under criminal investigation and detained in custody on Tuesday.

The judicial source, attached to anti-terrorist matters, said the four arrested Tuesday "were clearly counting on taking action soon."

The interior ministry statement claimed the group "had decided to hit Russian targets in France to avenge Ibn Al Khattab, who was killed by poisoning in Chechnya, the death of one of their 'brothers', Al Moutana, allegedly implicated in the attack plot against Strasbourg cathedral and killed by the Russians in Chechnya, and especially the elimination of members of the Chechen group that carried out the hostage-taking in Moscow."

The Russian security service, the FSB, claimed responsibility for killing the Saudi-born Khattab, a Chechen commander.

His supporters said on a website that he had been poisoned in March 2002 by a letter delivered by a messenger.