VIENNA, Austria -- Austrian police have arrested nine foreigners suspected of seeking to join Islamic extremists fighting in Syria.
State Prosecutor Nina Bussek said Wednesday the arrests were made over the last few days. None were identified by name or nationality.
Austria's Interior Ministry said all of the suspects are immigrants who had been granted asylum status. They stand to lose that standing if the suspicions are proven, meaning their likely deportation.
Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner described the arrests as "a blow against the jihadists," while urging Austrians to remain tolerant in general of asylum seekers, many of them from strife-torn areas of the Middle East.
She said most of them are "fleeing exactly these jihadists and need our protection."
The Austria Press Agency said all were arrested in Austrian border regions.
