French Police Sweep Housing Project, Arresting 19
The Associated Press Published: March 17, 2008
PARIS: More than 350 police swept through a housing project south of Paris early Monday, arresting 19 people, including 12 minors, in an operation targeting suspects who attacked police earlier in the month, authorities said.
Riot police raided the Grande-Borne project in Grigny at about 6 a.m. Monday, a police official said without elaborating. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity.
Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie had called the March 2 attack an "ambush" on officers responding to a call about vandalism. About 30 people, some armed, were waiting for the officers. Three police were hit in face with buckshot while another was hospitalized after being hit in the leg with buckshot and nails, officials said.
The interior minister noted her "determination to never leave unpunished aggressions against police officers, particularly when committed with firearms."
The sweep recalled a similar, though much larger, operation last month in Villiers-Le-Bel and neighboring projects north of Paris, in which 35 people were detained in connection with riots that broke out there in November after two teenage boys were killed in a motorbike crash with a police car.
Of the 130 police officers injured in the violence, at least 10 were hit by buckshot or pellets.
PARIS: More than 350 police swept through a housing project south of Paris early Monday, arresting 19 people, including 12 minors, in an operation targeting suspects who attacked police earlier in the month, authorities said.
Riot police raided the Grande-Borne project in Grigny at about 6 a.m. Monday, a police official said without elaborating. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity.
Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie had called the March 2 attack an "ambush" on officers responding to a call about vandalism. About 30 people, some armed, were waiting for the officers. Three police were hit in face with buckshot while another was hospitalized after being hit in the leg with buckshot and nails, officials said.
The interior minister noted her "determination to never leave unpunished aggressions against police officers, particularly when committed with firearms."
The sweep recalled a similar, though much larger, operation last month in Villiers-Le-Bel and neighboring projects north of Paris, in which 35 people were detained in connection with riots that broke out there in November after two teenage boys were killed in a motorbike crash with a police car.
Of the 130 police officers injured in the violence, at least 10 were hit by buckshot or pellets.
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