The Change Mariner

New French Terror Threat: AZF

My Way News:

AZF's threats, first disclosed earlier this month, appeared in at least three letters sent to the offices of President Jacques Chirac and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy on Dec. 10, Feb. 13 and Feb. 17.

The letters, demanding $5.2 million, threatened railway targets.

Information from the group led to the Feb. 21 recovery of a sophisticated explosive device buried in tracks near Limoges in central France.

Tests showed that the Limoges bomb was powerful enough to rupture the track, the government said then. It was made from a mixture of diesel fuel and nitrates and had a sophisticated detonator, judicial officials said.

AZF is not the only previously unknown group issuing threats to France.
Last week, two newspapers received letters addressed to Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and signed by the "Servants of Allah the Powerful and Wise."

That group also was not previously known to French intelligence officials.The letters threatened possible terror attacks against France and French interests to punish the country for banning Islamic headscarves in public schools beginning next school year.

French embassies in Muslim countries around the world received the same letters, officials said Tuesday.