France Deports Tunisian Suspected of Recruiting Jihadists for Syria

France announced Saturday that it has deported a Tunisian who was accused of recruiting young jihadists to fight in Syria, deeming him a threat to national security.

The interior ministry said the 28-year-old was expelled to Tunisia on Thursday "as a matter of absolute urgency in view of the threat that his presence posed for public safety and state security."

A French official said the Tunisian "played a central role in the recruitment of young jihadists" in the southeastern French city of Grenoble.

He is suspected of having taken part in the recruitment of young jihadists who were trained in Tunisia before being sent to Syria.

On April 23, the French government adopted a plan to fight jihadist networks which called for the immediate expulsion of foreigners implicated in them.

On June 3, Prime Minister Manuel Valls increased France's estimate of the number of its nationals embroiled in Syria's civil war to more than 800 and warned that they pose an unprecedented security threat.

The warning followed the arrest of Medhi Nemmouche, a French jihadist suspected of carrying out last week's Brussels Jewish Museum killings after spending a year fighting in Syria.