Canadian police raid homes of would-be jihadists in Montreal

Canadian federal police raided homes of would-be jihadists on Wednesday in the Montreal area who had been detained for allegedly seeking to join a militant group.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Erique Gasse told that searches linked to the 10 suspects were conducted around the city. He declined to offer details of the RCMP's "ongoing investigation." But local television showed officers hauling boxes out of the home of one of the suspects in the Montreal suburb of St Leonard.

The 10 would-be jihadists were arrested at the Montreal airport as they waited to board a flight to Turkey, a popular crossing point into neighboring Syria. There, the young men had hoped to join the Islamic State group, according to a counterterrorism task force. The youngest were 15 years old, and their friends were no older than 18.

Their passports were seized but the youths were released after being questioned, according to the RCMP-led Integrated National Security Enforcement Team. They had previously been arrested in mid-May. Investigators have remained tight-lipped about the arrests, saying only that a tip from a concerned parent helped authorities prevent the youths from leaving Canada.

Some of them were schoolmates of six others who travelled to Syria in January.