Algerian security forces have foiled a “terrorist plot” masterminded by a militant with links to France-based jihadist Amedy Coulibaly and the Islamic State group, the Al-Khabar daily reported on Thursday.
Citing “well-placed security sources”, the newspaper said early results of an investigation “show a strong link between the head of the terrorist cell” and Coulibaly, who in 2015 killed a municipal police officer then four hostages in a Jewish supermarket in Paris before being killed.
The alleged head of the Algerian cell, Mohamed Yacine Aknouche, was sentenced by a French court in 2004 to eight years in prison for taking part in a failed plan to blow up a Christmas market in the eastern city of Strasbourg.
The French-Algerian dual national was arrested Tuesday along with a minor and a third person whose identity has not been revealed, in Ain Tagourait, 60 kilometres (40 miles) west of Algiers, Al-Khabar said. During a raid on Aknouche’s apartment, security forces found “dozens of photos” of places he was hoping to attack, including army installations, it said. AFP