Photographs: Benoit Tessier/Reuters
A plot by Islamist militants to blow up the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre art museum and a nuclear power plant has been foiled, the French police said.
As France announced new measures to counter terrorism, it revealed how security officials stumbled on the plan after decoding coded messages between a 29-year-old Algerian butcher living in southern France known as Ali M and high-ranking members of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb.
According to Le Parisien newspaper, last April Ali M was contacted by his Al Qaeda contact. He was asked to make “suggestions concerning how to conduct jihad in the place you are currently”.
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REVEALED: Al Qaeda's plan to blow up Eiffel Tower, Louvre
Photographs: Getty Images
Ali M, who was known online by his web alias Redouane18, suggested targeting nuclear power plants, “planes at the moment of take-off”, the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum in Paris among other French landmarks.
He also suggested that markets and night clubs that attract thousands of Christians should be hit.
“The main walkways become black with people and a simple grenade can injure dozens of people, not to mention a booby trapped device,” he said, according to The Telegraph.
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REVEALED: Al Qaeda's plan to blow up Eiffel Tower, Louvre
Photographs: Reuters
His contact then asked him to fly to Algeria for combat training along with a fellow would-be terrorist. After that, he would return to France, to scout targets and “await instructions”.
However, the Algerian was arrested last June, a month before he was scheduled to fly to Tunisia and then Algeria for terror training. His lawyer said he was brainwashed.
AQIM is "an Algeria-based Sunni Muslim jihadist group," according to the United States National Counterterrorism Center
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