Islamists are not the main suspects in the investigation into who planted explosives in one of Paris's busiest department stores, Defense Minister Herve Morin said on Wednesday.
Police found the explosives at the Printemps store on Tuesday after a warning letter from a previously unknown group calling itself the Afghan Revolutionary Front and demanding the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan, reported Reuters.
"The phrasing, the dialectic used (in the letter) are not those typical of Islamist terrorists," Morin said on RTL morning radio.
"The word 'revolutionary' in the name of the group, the word 'capitalist' used to describe the store, the lack of any reference to Islam or jihad, all of these are reasons why Islamists are not considered the prime suspects," Morin said.
However, he said nothing was being ruled out in the investigation.
The five relatively old sticks of dynamite found in the Printemps lavatories could not have exploded as there were no detonators, suggesting the aim was to spread alarm rather than cause death.
In its letter posted to a French news agency, the group warned France it would "return to action in your big capitalist stores and this time without warning" unless French forces pulled out of Afghanistan by the end of February.
Morin said the incident would have no impact on France's policies in Afghanistan. France has 2,800 troops in the country, where its military has been present since 2001.