The next European nation on the Islamist hit list is … who else? France Gets Islamist Threat with Chechen Link.

The letter, sent to several newspapers, threatened “to plunge France into terror and remorse and spill blood outside its frontiers,” Jacques Esperandieu, deputy editor of the daily Le Parisien which received a copy, quoted it as saying.

The ministry confirmed earlier Justice Ministry reports that the threat, which it said was sent “on behalf of the servants of Allah, the powerful and wise,” mentioned possible attacks in France and against French interests abroad.

“These are threats articulated in such a way that they are being taken very seriously,” a judicial source told Reuters.

The group called itself the Movsar Barayev Commando, an apparent reference to the militant who organized the October 2002 Chechen raid at a Moscow theater that ended with 129 dead. He died in the special forces raid on the theater.