French police have arrested 15 people in raids targeting militants who are suspected of having links to last year's suicide bombings in Morocco.

Nine men and six women were detained in the early morning raids today, which were carried out in the Paris suburbs of Aulnay-sous-Bois and Mantes-la-Jolie, the French Interior Ministry said.

Both areas have high concentrations of North African immigrants.

The Interior Ministry said that 13 of the detained are suspected of having links to the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (MICG), a radical group believed to have been behind the bombings.

The series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in Casablanca in May killed 33 bystanders and 12 suicide bombers.

Under French law the suspects, who have not been identified, can be held for 96 hours without being formally placed under investigation.

The raids, which were mounted by the DST counter espionage service, were aimed at the network and sleeper cells uncovered during an investigation carried out by Jean-Louis Bruguiere and Jean-Francois Ricard, the anti-terrorism magistrates, French radio reported.

The magistrates are investigating the deaths of three French nationals in the bombings.

At Mantes-la-Jolie witnesses saw police taking away a young woman in a veil and two men, as well as removing documents and other objects in a bag.

The MICG has been designated a terrorist organisation by the US and is believed to have emerged in the late 1990s, recruiting Moroccans who had trained in armed camps in Afghanistan.

Its aims are establishing an Islamic state in Morocco and supporting al-Qaeda's jihad, or holy war, against the West.

Angel Acebes, the Spanish Interior Minister, said last week that the group was the main focus of the probe into the Madrid rail attacks on March 11, which killed 191 people.

The French police said today that they had discovered no evidence linked the 15 suspects arrested today with the train bomb attacks in Madrid.

Belgian authorities have also been investigating the group. Last month four men suspected of giving logistical support to the organisation were detained, accused of "belonging to a group aiming to commit terrorist acts".

One of the suspects is named in an international arrest warrant issued by the Moroccan Government after the terror attacks, Belgian prosecutors said.

Moroccan authorities arrested more than 900 suspects in connection with the deadly attacks.

The first 87 people to face trial were all convicted in August, with four people sentenced to death and 78 given sentences ranging from 10 to 30 years.

More Madrid arrests

Spanish police made two further arrests on Saturday in connection with the March 11 train blasts in Madrid, judicial sources said today

One was arrested in Fuenlabrada just outside Madrid and the other in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in North Africa, the sources said, giving no details about their identities, nationality or age.

With the latest arrests a total of 17 suspects are in detention for suspected involvement in the coordinated attacks on four commuter trains in Madrid which killed 191 people in Spain’s worst terrorist attack.

Fifteen of those held are facing charges of murder and terrorism while the latest two suspects detained are set to face questioning by examining magistrate Juan Del Olmo as early as Wednesday.

A further five suspects blew themselves up on Saturday in the Madrid suburb of Leganes after police cornered them in a raid.