Man arrested in Paris for allegedly planning terror attack with Louvre as potential target
French police officers stand in front of the Louvre Museum after a robbery in Paris, France, on October 19, 2025. Robbers break into the Louvre and flee with jewelry on the morning of October 19, 2025. (Photo by Jerome Gilles/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(PARIS) — A man was arrested in France for allegedly planning a terror attack that may have sought to target the Louvre Museum in Paris, according to the French Interior Ministry and prosecutors in Paris.
Officials told ABC News the investigation began after the suspect was stopped by police in Paris on April 28, where he was allegedly driving with a forged license. Officials said the man’s phone was accessed after that traffic stop.
The Interior Ministry said the attack that was allegedly being planned would probably have targeted the museum, which is the world’s most-visited, but said the man was arrested before details of the attack had been fully formulated.
Police said the suspect also was planning an attack specifically targeting members of the Jewish community in Paris, the ministry said.
The man, a 27-year-old Tunisian national, was arrested on May 7 and was in pre-trial detention, officials said. ABC News has reached out to the man’s lawyer for comment.
An investigation was opened on Monday “on the grounds of terrorist association with the goal to commit crimes against individuals,” according to the French Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office.
Investigators accessed the suspect’s phone, officials said, and found jihadist propaganda videos, hundreds of images of firearms and knives, ISIS-related imagery used on social media and encrypted communications with overseas contacts, who are believed to be potentially linked to extremist networks.
The suspect, according to what was found on his devices, discussed knowledge of access routes into the Louvre, possible placement of explosives inside the museum and production of ricin toxin, officials said.
The man who was arrested arrived in Europe via Lampedusa, Italy, in 2022 and was residing in the Paris region without residency status, officials told ABC News.
Investigators reported to prosecutors that the suspect denied any intent to commit a crime during questioning, claiming his activities were driven by “curiosity” about ISIS ideology.
A view of destruction after the Israeli military launches airstrikes on the Dahieh district in Beirut, Lebanon on March 5, 2026. (Photo by Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(BEIRUT) — Israeli strikes continued to bombard Lebanon’s capital on Thursday morning, as the U.S.-Israel war with Iran widens, further embroiling Iran’s proxy force in Lebanon, Hezbollah.
The Israeli military issued a number of evacuation warnings for parts of Beirut and huge swathes of southern Lebanon prior to the latest attacks on Wednesday, where it has struck hundreds of targets throughout the country since Monday, according to statements by Israel.
The Israeli military on Thursday afternoon expanded its warning to residents of the densely populated southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital, ordering them to leave immediately ahead of planned strikes. The notice from the Israel Defense Forces, which lists four neighborhoods, is effectively a forced evacuation of the entire Dahiyeh area on the outskirts of Beirut, which has long been a Hezbollah stronghold but is also a major residential and commercial hub — home to many civilians.
More than 300,000 people have evacuated southern Lebanon, according to the IDF.
The IDF said heading south is “strictly prohibited” and any movement south “could endanger your lives.”
At least 77 people have been killed and 527 others wounded since Israel resumed strikes on Lebanon on Monday, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Anyone south of the Litani River in Lebanon is being told by the IDF to abandon their homes and evacuate north. The order is raising concerns among some residents that this could mean a significant incursion once again from IDF forces moving into southern Lebanon in the coming days and weeks.
Tens of thousands have already fled from parts of Southern Lebanon and from other Hezbollah strongholds to points to the north of the country, according to local reports.
The strikes on Beirut on Wednesday were concentrated on the densely populated southern suburb, Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold, according to local reports.
In Hazmieh, another southern neighborhood of Beirut, the Comfort Hotel was struck without warning before dawn Wednesday, a local council member told ABC News, confirming reports from Lebanese state media. Hazmieh is a Christian neighborhood not under Hezbollah control with foreign embassies scattered nearby and the Lebanese Presidential Palace a quarter mile away from the hotel.
Officials in Lebanon think Israeli targeting neighborhoods like Hamiyeh could show an emboldened strategy — the gloves are off.
Israeli officials said on Wednesday that Hezbollah continues to act in concert with Iran.
Israeli forces had been striking targets periodically in October and November in southern Lebanon that they say are associated with Hezbollah after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect in Gaza.
Ahead of the attack on Iran, Israel launched strikes against targets in Baalbek, east Lebanon, in February, saying it killed “several” members of Hezbollah’s missile unit in three different locations.
This week’s strikes were the first time Israel struck Beirut, in central Lebanon, since June 2025.
The Israeli military warned Tuesday that Hezbollah “will pay a heavy price” after the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group fired rockets into northern Israel overnight Monday into Tuesday.
Immediately after the rocket fire, the IDF “launched a large-scale attack against Hezbollah terrorist targets throughout Lebanon, including Beirut,” according to IDF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin.
“We attacked dozens of the organization’s headquarters and launch sites,” Defrin said. “We attacked senior commanders. Some of the last surviving senior veterans of this organization. We are currently examining the results of the attack.”
Defrin noted that “forces are deployed along the border in front and are prepared to continue the defense and attack as long as they require.”
When asked whether the IDF is preparing for a ground maneuver in Lebanon, Defrin said the troops are “well prepared.”
“We have mobilized close to 100,000 men,” he added. “Dozens of battalions, divisions and brigades are prepared in the defense on the northern border. Prepared for all possibilities. In defense and in attack. All possibilities are on the table. We are conducting situation assessments and all possibilities are on the table.”
The deputy head of Hezbollah’s political council, Mahmoud Qamati, warned Tuesday that Israel “wanted an open war … so let it be an open war.”
“The enemy wanted an open war, which he has not stopped since the ceasefire agreement decision, so let it be an open war,” Qamati said in a statement.
The IDF said it struck an underground Hezbollah weapon storage facility and additional command centers in Beirut in its latest wave of strikes. The IDF claimed its targets included an underground weapon storage facility, additional command centers and a site used by Hezbollah for terrorist attacks, intelligence gathering and for propaganda.
Protesters clash with forces in Srinagar, Kashmir, on March 2, 2026, as authorities impose restrictions and curbs across Kashmir in response to demonstrations over the reported killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (Muzamil Mattoo/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Trump administration officials told congressional staff in private briefings on Sunday that U.S. intelligence did not suggest Iran was preparing to launch a preemptive strike against the United States interests, four people familiar with the briefing told ABC News.
The officials said there was more of a general threat in the region from Iran’s missiles and proxy forces, sources told ABC News.
The intel shared with staff appears to contradict some of President Donald Trump and the White House’s previous statements about Iran and the reasoning for attacking the country.
The president said in his video address announcing the strikes, “our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.”
On a call with reporters this weekend, senior Trump administration officials said there were indicators that Iranians could launch a preemptive attack against U.S. forces and allies in the region.
While Trump was meeting with military leaders this weekend, he spoke with ABC News about the general threat from the Iranian regime.
“I think there was a threat. Had we not done Midnight Hammer, which was one of the greatest things [this] country has ever done, we would’ve been faced with a nuclear weapon within a month — we would have been faced with a very powerful nuclear weapon within a month,” Trump said this weekend.
“And then they were trying to build back –not there because that area was obliterated, but they were working on another site despite the negotiations — which at some points were going very well,” Trump continued. “But in the end we didn’t think they were going to get there [in terms of negotiations]. And they would’ve had in a fairly short period of time some very fairly big nuclear capacity and we were not going to put up with that.”
During a press briefing Monday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the attack was a response to Iranian aggression against the U.S. over a number of years.
“We didn’t start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it. Their war on Americans has become our retribution against their Ayatollah and his death cult,” Hegseth said. “It took the 47th president, a fighter who always puts America first, to finally draw the line after 47 years of Iranian belligerence.”
The U.S. and Israel launched an attack on Israel on Saturday, killing Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran. Trump told Fox News’s Bret Baier on Monday that 49 senior leaders were killed in the initial strikes.
Following the start of the U.S.-Israel operation, Iran launched retaliatory strikes with missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, regional U.S. bases and Gulf nations.
The conflict has resulted in at least four deaths of U.S. servicemembers so far, but military officials said Monday more deaths are expected.
“We expect to take additional losses,” Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a briefing. “And, as always, we will work to minimize U.S. losses. But as the secretary said, this is major combat operations.”
Caine did not specify a timeline, but said, “This is not a single overnight operation. The military objective … will take some time to achieve.”
Trump told CNN’s Jake Tapper that the U.S. military is “knocking the crap” out of Iran — but the “big wave” is yet to come.
“We haven’t even started hitting them hard. The big wave hasn’t even happened. The big one is coming soon,” Trump told Tapper Monday morning.
CNN was the first to report on what the Trump admin told congressional staff.
–ABC News’ John Parkinson and Fritz Farrow contributed to this report.
Sgt. Juan Miranda, culinary specialist, 155th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, files in Afghan Special Immigrants into the dining facility, August 20, 2021 at Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar. (Sgt. Jimmie Baker/US Army via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — More than 1,100 Afghan refugees and family members of active duty U.S. military personnel are stranded on an unused Doha military base that has become a target since the start of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, according to U.S. non-profit organization Afghan Evac.
Qatar Armed Forces have been intercepting incoming attacks from Iran, but residents at the facility, known as Camp As Sayliyah, told ABC News they have been hiding in buildings during the attacks and were not initially given bunkers or proper protections to take cover.
During those weeks, they said shrapnel would fall into their bedrooms, even locations where young children were. Since the war broke out, refugees sent ABC News recordings in secret, outlining what they say are the dire conditions at the camp. They asked for their faces to be hidden and their voices altered, due to their fear of being deported or reprimanded.
Three weeks later, ABC News received videos where residents show how the camp installed new concrete walling near the entrances and exits of buildings. They say workers urge residents to enter the bunkers in the “event of a duck and cover alert.”
In response to the residents’ claims of terrible conditions, a spokesperson for the a U.S. State Department, which administers the base, also told ABC News they are “addressing all related operational concerns” including “the safety and security of American citizens as well as the safety of residents at Camp As Sayliyah.”
Mahidewran, a young Afghan mother, told us that her child’s first steps were taken in the camp, where the family has been for more than a year, and that raising her child there has been difficult.
“I’m not always able to provide her with the foods she needs or the toys she loves,” she said.
Her daughter was about to turn 1 when they were initially brought to Camp As Sayliyah, and now she is turning 2.
Apart from raising a child on a former military base, she faces another unlikely challenge: war.
Mahidewran told ABC News sirens go off every few hours in the camp, warning residents to take cover in their buildings.
“I left [Afghanistan] through a legal process by the United States, and when they transferred me to Qatar, we were given safety, an opportunity to rebuild our lives,” she told ABC News.
Ahmad, who said he fought against terrorism alongside the U.S. as a member of the Afghan Command forces, told ABC News his son sleeps under the bed, fearing for his life as missiles continue to fire at the camp.
He said he’s been living at Camp As Sayliyah with his children for more than 18 months, and despite being brought to Doha by the U.S. government, his entire family remains in limbo, not knowing where they will go next. ABC News spoke to refugees who shared similar stories to Ahmad’s — saying they were promised a better life in return for risking theirs when working for the U.S. government.
From July to August 2021, the U.S. evacuated more than 100,000 people out of Afghanistan during Operation Allies Refuge, following the withdrawal of U.S. troops during the Biden-Harris administration.
Nearly five years later, the Trump administration has halted relocation and refugee resettlement efforts, impacting many of those who had already been vetted and cleared to travel to the U.S., according to AfghanEvac. The reports detailing the operation have since been deleted from the State Department website.
Refugees at Camp As Sayliyah said that the U.S. government’s promise of a better life on American soil was broken and that being caught in another war brings them back to the terrifying moments they experienced in Afghanistan.
“We came from a country that was under war for 48 years, before living here we were living in constant fear and anxiety,” Farishta, a teenager living on the base with her parents, told ABC News.
When ABC News spoke with Farishta, she said she was still living in a state of fear and that a worker at the camp threatened her with deportation to Afghanistan if she spoke to a journalist again.
Farishta said she has lived at Camp As Sayliyah for 15 months and often dreams of her future, hoping to further her education.
“I feel hopeless because I am a girl who has been deprived of education and whose future is uncertain,” she said.
“Afghan Nationals at the camp do not currently have a viable pathway to the United States,” the department said.
The plan is to relocate the population to a third country by March 31, according to the department. It said this “is a positive resolution that provides safety for these remaining people to start a new life outside of Afghanistan.”
The State Dept said the “Trump administration has no plans to send these” Afghan refugees back to their home country.
However, those people ABC News spoke to said they have not been told what country they would be going to or when.
Afghan Evac said it has been advocating for refugees at the camp, writing several letters to the State Department, urging the government not to leave the residents at Camp As Sayliyah behind.
According to Afghan Evac, 800 of the people at the camp are fully vetted and approved refugees who were cleared to travel to the U.S. The camp’s residents are mainly women and children, it said.
Shawn VanDiver, the president of Afghan Evac, claimed that there was a pathway and that the State Department closed it off.
“There is no structural or legal barrier preventing these individuals from coming from the United States. The absence of a ‘viable pathway’ is a policy choice, not an inevitability,” he told ABC News.
