Police in France, Belgium, and Germany arrested more than two dozen suspects in anti-terror sweeps yesterday, the Associated Press (AP) reported today.

French and German authorities arrested at least 14 other people Friday suspected of links to the Islamic State group. Thirteen more were detained in Belgium and two arrested in France in an anti-terror sweep following a firefight Thursday in the eastern Belgian city of Verviers.
Two suspected terrorists were killed and a third was wounded in that raid on a suspected terrorist hideout, and federal magistrate Eric Van der Sypt said Friday that the suspects were within hours of implementing a plan to kill police on the street or in their offices.

According to the AP, none of those arrested in Belgium were known to have ties to the terrorists who last week attacked the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket, killing sixteen. An estimated 450 Belgians have gone to fight with extremist groups in Syria, and 150 are believed to have returned to Belgium.

Those targeted by the police in France have reported connections to Amedy Coulibaly, who took the supermarket hostage last week. Paris is at its highest terror alert level, and a major train station had to be evacuated today due to a bomb threat. A gunman has also surrendered after taking several hostages earlier today at a post office in the city of Colombes, north of Paris. A city official refused to confirm or deny whether that incident was linked to the Paris attacks.

German authorities said that the arrests made in Berlin were part of an ongoing investigation into Turkish extremists.

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