French police detained about 19 people suspected of being part of a militant Islamist ring, including the leader of the illegal Forsane Alizza group, Mohammed Achamlane, reported the Guardian on Friday. The arrests were carried out in several French cities, including Toulouse in the south-west, Nantes and Le Mans in western France, and in the Paris region. Earlier a French citizen of Algerian origin Mohamed Merah shot dead three soldiers, three schoolchildren and a rabbi in three attacks in Toulouse. His brother Abdelkader is being held in custody on suspicion of complicity.