PARIS -- French counterterrorism police arrested a 15-year old boy on Wednesday morning following two recent thwarted attacks on French soil, an official said.
The security official said on condition of anonymity because she wasn't authorized to publicly discuss the case that the suspect was arrested in northeastern Paris and turned 15 only a few days ago.
She added that the unnamed boy has links to jihadi Rachid Kassim, who officials say is a French Islamic State member tied to at least four plots to attack France since June. The official wouldn't comment on the links between the teen suspect and Kassim.
Kassim's precise role is under investigation, but officials say he has become a key instigator who directs recruits in encrypted forums on how and where to carry out the Islamic State's call for European Muslims to strike at home. Most recently, he was believed to be in contact with a 19-year-old in an unprecedented cell of French women who failed in their attempts to detonate a car bomb and kill police.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that Wednesday's arrest of the boy was part of French authorities' efforts to target people vulnerable to "calls to carry out killings, led by a certain number of actors in Syria." But he didn't elaborate on any direct links between the boy and the IS group.
The extremist group "uses encrypted means to encourage increasingly young" individuals, he said, citing the messaging application Telegram.
France is currently in "an exceptional level of mobilization" following two failed attacks in six days, he added.
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Sylvie Corbet contributed to this report.
