Eight arrested over Tunisian bombing

French police have detained eight people in connection with an attack on a synagogue in Tunisia that killed 19 people in April this year.

The suspects were arrested near Lyon for questioning by agents from France's counter-intelligence service, the DST. Police were acting on orders from the leading anti-terrorism judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere.

One of those detained was identified as Walid Naouar, the brother of the man believed to have been driving the gas-laden truck that exploded outside the synagogue on the resort island of Djerba.

Mr Naouar's parents and three people close to the family were among the others detained, the Lyon prosecutor Christian Hassensrat said. Under Fraench anti-terrorism laws, the authorities can hold the suspects for up to four days without charging them.

Fourteen of the victims in the 11 April attack on the Ghriba synagogue were German tourists. The 2,000-year-old synagogue, the oldest in Africa, was crowded with tourists at the time of the blast. Djerba, 370 miles south of Tunis, is one of the country's most popular resorts.

German investigators have found evidence suggesting links between the synagogue attack and Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida network. Germany's chief federal prosecutor, Kay Nehm, said he believed a German citizen identified only as Christian G. travelled five times to Afghanistan and was possibly developing computer software for al-Qa'ida. Investigators traced the 35-year-old man as the recipient of an intercepted phone call from the main suspect in the synagogue attack.

The Tunisian government initially maintained the explosion was accidental, but then acknowledged it was "a premeditated criminal act". The authorities have said they believe the attack was the work of a Tunisian, Nizar Naouar, and an unidentified accomplice who also lived in Tunisia. They believe Naouar died in the explosion, but they have not said what happened to his alleged accomplice.

A group linked to al-Qa'ida that claimed to have launched the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania has claimed responsibility for the Tunisia blast.

Last month, Bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, said America's allies needed to get out of the Muslim world, adding that warnings had already been sent to Germany and France.