Italian police make terror swoop

Italian police carried out a series of arrests today in an international terrorism operation.

Police in Perugia, a town in central Italy coordinating the raids, confirmed there were arrests as part of the crackdown but refused to provide any details.

In particular, police were searching for suspects linked to a Turkish outlawed Marxist group which has carried out attacks in Turkey, news reports said.

About 100 police and Carabinieri paramilitary forces took part in the raids in Perugia, about 80 miles north of Rome.

The Italian news agencies ANSA and AGI and RAI state-run TV said some suspects were picked up in Turkey as part of the same probe, as well as in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.

ANSA said that at least five people had been arrested in Perugia -- three Italians and two Turks.

Turkish police said they had no immediate information on any arrests in their country.

The Italian reports said the arrests broke up a cell of the far-left DHKP-C, or Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army/Front – a group that is branded as a terrorist organisation by the US State Department and by the European Union.

DHKP-C has claimed responsibility for a number of bombings in Turkey, including two suicide attacks in 2001 that killed three Istanbul policemen and an Australian woman. It has also carried out attacks in Germany.