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Italian authorities issue 17 arrest warrants in anti-terror operation across Europe

Xinhua, November 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

Italy issued arrest warrants for 17 alleged Islamic radicals on Thursday in a joint anti-terror operation with other European police forces, local media reported.

Some 16 Iraqi Kurds and 1 citizen from Kosovo were overall targeted on suspicion of international terrorism, according to Ansa news agency.

The group has been said to focus on recruiting militants in Italy and other European countries, and helping them join Islamic radical forces in Syria and Iraq, according to Italy's Carabinieri military police.

The operation named "JWeb" was ordered by prosecutors in Rome and the Italian National Anti-mafia and Counterterrorism Directorate (DNAA), in coordination with the European Union (EU) judicial cooperation agency (Eurojust).

The arrests were carried out in Italy, the UK, Norway, and Finland, Carabinieri Special Operation Unit (ROS) commander Giuseppe Governale told a press conference in Rome.

A key figure among the arrested was Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad, also known as Mullah Krekar, who is a controversial Iraqi Kurd cleric living in Norway as a refugee since 1991.

Mullah Krekar is believed to be the founder of Iraq-based radical Sunni Islamic group Ansar al-Islam, and had already been sentenced in Norway for publicly encouraging violent acts and praising the attack in which French cartoonists of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were killed in Paris.

"The dismantled organization represented an evolution of the traditional jihadist group, and proved even more insidious for its being hierarchically structured with its head in Norway and several cells in many (European) countries, including a major one in Italy," a police statement said.

The group would have plotted terrorist activities in Norway, and attacks against Norwegian diplomats both in the country and across foreign offices in the Middle East, investigators added.

Media reports about a possible terror plot involving Italy were dismissed.

"I can deny they (the arrested) were involved in scheming a terror plot in Italy, as some early rumours from Norway seemed to suggest," ROS chief Governale told reporters.

Police raids were carried out in the provinces of Bolzano, Parma, and Brescia in northern Italy, plus in Norway, United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, and Switzerland.

Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano praised the operation, which "proved that international cooperation is of the utmost importance to counter terrorism". Endit