AZF

[lrd]

New group?

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French police say unknown group threatens to plant bombs on rail network
PARIS, Mar 03, 2004 (AFX-Europe via COMTEX) --

A previously unknown group calling itself AZF has threatened to set off 10 bombs on the French rail network unless it is given more than 4 mln eur police sources said.

They said the group has sent letters to President Jacques Chirac and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, in which it warns that bombs have already been set in place and primed to explode on different dates.

The letters demanded four million dollars and one million euros, police said.

Speaking earlier on LCI radio, the director of the national police force, Michel Gaudin, said the police take the threat from AZF seriously, given that an explosive device was found on Feb 21 on a railway track near Limoges in central France.

Police said the device, left on the line from Paris to the southern city of Toulouse, was "of the standard of a fireworks manufacturer or of a very talented student but, whether deliberately or accidentally, it could not have gone off." It comprised a chemical explosive and a complicated detonator, they said.

An explosion at the AZF chemical factory in Toulouse on Sept 21, 2001, left 30 people dead and more than 2,000 injured.

An investigation into the causes of that blast is still going on, but preliminary indications suggest it was an accident.

Gaudin said police had only "a very, very brief telephone contact" with the group, but he does not believe they are connected with any known Islamic or Chechen terrorist movement.

http://www.individual.com/story.php?story=11647739

[Team Sergeant]

Sounds more like a bunch of common criminals than terrorists. My guess would be that their using a name to make themselves sound legit.

[NousDefionsDoc]

Agreed. Or a nascent group looking for financing. Either way, I doubt they will ever get off the ground in today's environment.

probably criminals as they announced before acting.

[lrd]

A previously unknown group calling itself AZF has threatened to set off 10 bombs on the French rail network unless it is given more than 4 mln eur police sources said.

Have the recent events in Madrid changed your opinions re: this group?

[NousDefionsDoc]

No, not yet. But good question.

[Airbornelawyer]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...plosives_found

Explosive Found in French Railway Bed

By ELAINE GANLEY, Associated Press Writer

PARIS - A French railroad worker found an explosive device buried in the bed of a railway line heading from France to Switzerland on Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said.

Bomb disposal experts neutralized the device, which was half-buried under a track in the village of Montieramey, on a train line heading from Paris to Basel, Switzerland, the ministry said in a statement. It was discovered shortly after noon.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The Interior Ministry said the device did not resemble bombs described in threats by a previously unknown group calling itself AZF.

The group claimed to have planted nine bombs along the country's rail network and has threatened to explode them unless it is paid millions of dollars.

The device, found at 12:35 p.m, was in a clear plastic box measuring about 8 inches by 8 inches, the statement said.

The box contained nitrate fuel and a flat battery linked to seven detonators, the ministry said.

The device was being examined at the police laboratory, the statement said.

AZF's threats, first disclosed in early March, 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.

[lrd]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,115283,00.html


France Arrests Three in Train Bomb Plot

Friday, March 26, 2004

PARIS — Anti-terrorist police detained three suspects in connection with an investigation into a mysterious group's threats to bomb French railways, police said Friday.

The suspects, two men and a woman, were taken into custody Thursday in Paris and the suburban Val-de-Marne (search) region, police officials said. They were being held for questioning at the headquarters of French anti-terrorist police.

An obscure group that calls itself AZF (search) has threatened to blow up bombs at French railway targets unless it is paid millions of dollars.

On Thursday, the group issued a cryptic letter suggesting it could carry out an attack to surpass the terror bombings that killed 190 people in Madrid, Spain. But the group, which previously claimed to have mined railway tracks, also announced it was suspending its operations so it can perfect them.

The letter came a day after a bomb was found half-buried on a train track near the town of Troyes (search), some 100 miles southeast of Paris, triggering a massive inspection of France's rail network.

AZF has not carried out attacks, but its threats to blow up rail targets have heightened concerns — laid bare by the March 11 train bombings — about the vulnerability of European public transport systems.

Police said the three suspects' movements corresponded in a "troubling" manner with certain elements of the AZF inquiry, police said. They were questioned all night, police added.

AZF first contacted the government in December, then threatened in February to attack railway targets. The group directed authorities to a bomb, recovered Feb. 21, that was buried in the bed of a railway line near Limoges (search) in central France.

That bomb and the second one found Wednesday were made from an explosive mixture of nitrates and diesel fuel. The second bomb had seven detonators, attached in the same way as the first, and both were housed in identical see-through plastic boxes, police said.

The discovery of both bombs prompted the state train authority to send about 10,000 employees out on foot to check 19,800 miles of track.

Police say they know little about the group. They have communicated with AZF using special phone lines and newspaper classified ads that addressed the blackmailers as "My big wolf." Investigators signed off as "Suzy."

AZF is the name of a chemical factory that exploded in Toulouse (search), in southwest France, in 2001, killing 30 people. Authorities said the explosion was accidental.

[NousDefionsDoc]

Wanna bet they're registered with unemployment?

[lrd]

I liked this part:

But the group, which previously claimed to have mined railway tracks, also announced it was suspending its operations so it can perfect them.