ANTI-TERROR RAIDS IN EUROPE

In the week since the jihad against Charlie Hebdo and the Jewish community in France, the authorities in France, Belgium and Germany have conducted raids on suspects, and yielded some results:

French police arrested twelve suspects overnight and questioned them about any "logistical support" they may have given the gunmen who carried out the Paris terror attacks.

A source in the judiciary told AFP that suspects were questioned over what assistance they may have provided for the attack in which 17 died, such as providing weapons.

There were also reports on Friday morning that the Gare de l'Est station in Paris was evacuated following a bomb threat.

Police have been searching five towns in the ongoing operation following last week's attack - which began with the assault on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Here's more about the raid in Belgium:

Belgian authorities raised the national terror alert level from two to three, the second-highest level, following the deaths of two suspected jihadists in a counter-terrorism raid in the town of Verviers on Thursday.

Around ten raids took place across the country last night, including in suburbs of the capital, Brussels, while security was stepped up in police stations and public buildings. Jewish schools in Brussels and Antwerp are closed today.

No arrests have yet been made following the latest raids, though arms were covered in a second house searched in Verviers. Police are due to hold a press conference at 11 am local time.

Meanwhile German police confirmed that they have made two arrests following eleven counter-terrorism searches overnight. The suspects had been planning attacks in Syria but not on German soil, officials said.

Two men were killed and a third was injured and arrested by counter-terrorist police. The three had returned from Syria last week and had been planning an imminent attack “on a grand scale” in Belgium, federal authorities said.

While it's good they conducted these raids, honestly, it's a shame it had to take a terrorist attack on the scale of what happened in the past week to prompt them to take serious action. Now, if there's another step that must be taken, it's cancelling passports for jihadists who already left for Syria and Iraq, and exiling them. Europe has a lot more to do if they don't want to lose the faith of their citizenry, lose more Jewish citizens, or if they want to ever regain any who've left.