PARIS/BERLIN. The French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has denied that there was any direct link between anti-terror raid in Belgium and last week`s attacks in France.
“We don`t think there is a direct link” between the two events, Valls said on Friday.
“The link that exists is the desire of terrorists to attack our values, our compatriots,” he further said.
On Thursday night, the Belgium police raided a town of eastern Verviers city near the German border and killed two men and arrested another.
The suspects killed in the raid were reportedly planning a major attack.
“This operation stopped a major terrorist attack from taking place. You could say a second potential Paris has been averted,” a federal magistrate Eric Van der Sypt said. However, he also said that there was apparently no link between the raid and Paris attacks.
“The investigation started a few weeks ago before the attacks in Paris, I would like to stress,” Van der Sypt said.
“They [the suspects] all have Belgian nationality,” he added.
The special police units in Belgium carried out at least a dozen anti-terror raids in areas predominantly populated by immigrants in at least four districts in and around Brussels.
The explosives were reportedly found in the western Brussels area of Anderlecht. However, there was no police confirmation.
German police arrest two suspected ISIS activiss in Berlin
Separately, 250 German police officers raided 11 apartments in Berlin on Friday morning and arrested two Turkish nationals on suspicion of recruiting fighters and procuring equipment and funding for Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria.
The authorities said the raids were carried out as part of a months-long investigation into a small group of extremists based in Berlin.
The arrested persons including the 41-year-old Ismet D is accused of organizing the group of largely Turkish and Russian nationals to fight against infidels in Syria whereas the 43-year-old Emin F is accused of being in charge of finances.
The authorities said there was no evidence that the men were planning attacks inside Germany but that they acquired funding to help send fighters to Syria as well as military materials like night-vision equipment.
A spokesman for Berlin prosecutors Martin Steltner said that the arrests were unrelated to the recent attacks in Paris or raids in Belgium.
“It’s just coincidence,” Steltner said.
