France raises Paris terror alert over al-Qaeda warning

In a separate development armed guards were deployed to protect prominent Islamic moderate Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Paris mosque.

“The terrorist threat is real and today our vigilance, therefore, is reinforced,” said Brice Hortefeux, the interior minister.

Yesterday’s warning came a week after the Senate voted in favour of a ban on full Islamic veils in France, which is due to come into force next year if approved by constitutional judges. Al-Qaida’s deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has urged Muslim women to resist the proposed ban.

A police source said security services had identified two separate Islamist sleeper cells with financial means that were recently “woken up” in France after the arrival of several Islamic radicals from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Le Monde newspaper yesterday reported that intelligence notes received last week alerted French authorities to an “anti-French focus” by al-Qaida’s North African arm.

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