20 al-Qaida terrorism suspects arrested in European crackdown

A EUROPE-WIDE sweep disrupted an Islamic cell that was recruiting potential suicide bombers for attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, Italian police said yesterday, announcing the arrests of 20 terrorism suspects.

Police said the suspects, mostly Tunisians, were arrested across Europe as part of the sweep against a cell based in the northern Italian region of Lombardy.

Executing the arrest warrants, police said they found al-Qaida manuals for making explosives, detonation devices and poisons, and instructions on guerrilla techniques.

“The investigation has revealed recruitment, training and passage to aspiring terrorists to Iraq and Afghanistan,” said lead investigator General Giampaolo Ganzer of Italy’s paramilitary Carabinieri police.

The suspects were wanted on charges ranging from association with the aim of committing international terrorism to falsifying documents to aid illegal immigrants. The group’s members had been indoctrinated in militancy in mosques since at least 1998, according to police transcripts, and appeared to take serious precautions. In one intercepted call, a suspected cell member said “things are being done with extreme calm, haste does not bring desired results”.

Eleven were arrested in the northern Italian cities of Milan, Reggio Emilia, Imperia and Bergamo. Nine others were arrested on warrants issued in France, Britain and Portugal, Italian news agencies reported.

The Lombardy cell had ties with a group in neighbouring Emilia Romagna whose aim is to establish an Islamic state extending from Morocco to China, Italian investigators said.

Intercepted phone calls made clear the aim of sending jihadist fighters to Iraq via Syria.