Group threatening French railways resurfaces

[soup]

PARIS, March 13 (Reuters) - A shadowy group threatening to blow up parts of the French railway unless cash demands are met has repeated its threats to authorities after a week-long silence, a source close to investigations said on Saturday.

The source said the previously unknown group, which calls itself AZF, wrote to President Jacques Chirac's office this week demanding a payment in excess of an original demand of some $5 million.

The group repeated a threat to start detonating 10 bombs which it says are placed at various points along the 32,000 km (20,000 miles) of tracks which make up the French railway, the source said, adding that authorities take the threat seriously.

>full article:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L13439874.htm

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prior reports:


What they said about

... the AZF

William Cederwell
Friday March 5, 2004


What is the AZF? Although no one knows, the French press has devoted a great deal of coverage to the shadowy extremist group, which has threatened to blow up trains and is demanding two separate ransoms of $4m and €1m from the French government.
The authorities kept the threats a secret for two-and-half months while they negotiated with the group, said Stéphane Albouy in Le Parisien. The press also agreed to keep quiet for fear of jeopardising the work of the "anti-terrorist services", and the French public only learnt about the threat on Wednesday. The AZF is "a tiny unknown group", continued Albouy, which took its name from the Toulouse chemicals factory destroyed in an explosion in 2001.

Nobody knows whether the AZF is a bunch of "dangerous cranks or sinister militants", noted Le Progrès, but its threats have exposed the "fragility of our societies before determined criminals". The paper was relieved the threats were now in the public domain, so "society, as a whole, is prepared to face" up to dangers.

>full article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,11882,1162483,00.htm

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03/03/04
Bomb Threat Prompts Check of French Rail

PARIS - Nearly 10,000 rail workers hunted for bombs along thousands of miles of train tracks in France on Wednesday, after a little-known group threatened attacks unless it is paid millions of dollars.

Information from the group, called AZF, led to the recovery Feb. 21 of an explosive device buried in the bed of a railway line near Limoges in central France, the government said.

Tests showed the bomb was powerful enough to rupture the track, the government said. It was made from a mixture of diesel fuel and nitrates and had a sophisticated detonator, according to judicial officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

>full article:
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/consumer_news/8094195.htm?1c