Italy's anti-terrorism police targets Al Qaeda-linked cell, 2 alleged Bin Laden aids among arrested

Italian anti-terrorism police carried out a major operation against 18 alleged Islamic militants on Friday, including two presumed aids of Osama Bin Laden, the now-deceased founder and leader of Al Qaeda.

The operation was ordered by prosecutors in the Sardinia region, and executed by special operation anti-terrorism force DIGOS in at least seven provinces, including Sassari, Cagliari, Rome, Macerata, and Bergamo, police said.

Nine people were arrested, while the others were still being searched.

All suspects are Pakistan or Afghan nationals, and they were variously charged with criminal association for international terrorism purposes, other terrorism charges, and migrant trafficking, prosecutors in Cagliari said at a press conference.

Some of the them were directly involved in "several acts of terrorism in Pakistan" carried out between March and November 2011, plus the car bomb attack that killed over 130 people in a Peshawar market in October 2009, according to the probe.

Two suspects were also thought to have been members of the network protecting Osama Bin Laden, who was killed by U.S. special forces in Pakistan in 2011.

"Several wiretaps indicated direct contacts between the families of some of the suspects and Osama Bin Laden," prosecutor Mauro Mura said.

The group's main goal was to finance terrorism in Pakistan and Afghanistan in order to "intimidate the population in Pakistan and force the government there to give up its contrast to Taliban militias and its support of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan," a police statement said.

Italy's interior minister Angelino Alfano said of the operation, "It shows our system works well, and the Italian state is strong and capable of tackling terrorist networks," he told RAI state television.

Telephone wiretaps among the cell's members indicated a Pakistan suicide bomber was in Italy in 2010, and DIGOS investigators at the press conference said they were not ruling out the possibility that the Vatican was a target during the man's stay in the country.

Among those arrested on Friday was a Muslim religious leader, or imam, operating between the northern cities of Bergamo and Brescia, who allegedly helped the group by collecting funds among Pakistani and Afghan communities in Italy. Another imam in the Sardinian city of Olbia was also arrested.

The alleged terrorist cell was systematically engaged in helping Pakistani and Afghan migrants enter Italy illegally, as a way to both recruit people and gather illegal funds, investigators said.

Some of the migrants went on to northern European countries, while others stayed in Italy through securing fake work visas, or as asylum seekers.

"We believe this activity of illegal immigration was very important, because it allowed the group to gather large financial resources to fuel terrorist activities in Pakistan through a whip round system," prosecutor Mura explained.

These resources were mainly destined for Pakistan, yet the Italian cell would have gained some 6,000 euros (about 6,515 U.S. dollars) on average with each illegal migrant entry into the country.

"We have evidence of several trips made to Pakistan, with 20 to 30 thousand euros on average being sent to 'cousin' groups there, and we have also evidence of another system of money transfers, the so-called hawala system, being used by them through several trustees in different countries," prosecutor said.

In one case, investigators discovered that over 55,000 euros were sent via a flight from Rome to Islamabad. Endit