France holds six in Iraq Islamist recruiting probe

PARIS, Jan 18 (Reuters) - French police have detained six people in the Montpellier area of southern France under an investigation into recruitment of French Islamists to fight international forces backing the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.

A judicial source said four men and two women were detained on Tuesday in a series of raids by the DST domestic intelligence service. Three of the four men were Moroccan nationals, the fourth French, the source added.

The source linked the arrests to a police raid in the central city of Limoges last June. A man was placed under formal investigation on terrorism charges following that operation; five others arrested at the same time were later released.

Anti-terrorism magistrates launched an investigation into recruitment after it emerged that three French nationals had died in fighting or in suicide operations against U.S.-led forces in Iraq.

All three came from a Paris district raided last January by the DST, which said it had broken up an Islamist group recruiting French nationals to fight in Iraq.

Around a dozen French citizens are thought to be fighting alongside insurgents in Iraq.