Roundup: Italian leaders call for EU common strategy to beat terrorist threat

Italian leaders on Tuesday called for a European common strategy against the terrorist threat following the explosions that killed 34 and injured at least 200 at the airport of Zaventem and a running metro train in central Brussels.

"Belgium has been hit, the capital and heart of the European Union (EU)," Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi told a press conference after presiding over a national meeting called to evaluate additional measures against terrorist threat.

Renzi highlighted that the attackers in Brussels came from within the places that were hit, which means "the threat is global but the killers were also local killers."

In order to defeat Islamist terrorism, the Italian prime minister stressed, the EU needs a "unified security and defense structure."

Renzi also added that Italian authorities were at work to assess the conditions of three Italian nationals who were wounded in the attacks though were not on the list of people seriously injured.

"According to our information, none of them is on the list of the seriously injured," Italian ambassador in the Belgian capital Vincenzo Grassi confirmed at a press conference.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella said in a statement "the liberty and the future of human cohabitation are at stake."

"We must face this decisive challenge with a common strategy that considers all aspects of the situation, security-wise, militarily, culturally, and on the cooperation and development front," Mattarella said, echoing Renzi's words.

Interior Minister Angelino Alfano called the explosions a "savage attack that has struck at the heart of Europe" and said that the Italian level of alert was remaining at two on a scale of three after the terror attacks in Brussels, though amid reinforced security.

He also announced later on Tuesday that police have arrested an Iraqi citizen in Naples, southern Italy, suspected by Belgian and French authorities of being in touch with terrorist groups. It was the latest in a long series of arrests of terror suspects carried out in Italy in recent times.

Among the several leaders who expressed their sorrow and condolences to the families of the victims and the wounded, Senate speaker Pietro Grasso called on reconnecting to Europe's founding values of "solidarity, cohesion and strength."

"Only a united and caring Europe can defeat the ills of our time," Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin agreed with him in her words posted on a social network, underlining that the Brussels pain was her pain and the pain of all Italians.

Italy on Tuesday raised security measures at airports, railway stations, subways, and all places considered at risk, while the foreign ministry warned Italian nationals in Brussels not to go to areas of public gathering.

Local intelligence sources quoted by ANSA news agency said that the risk of such attacks in Italy is high as the country has received generic threats, although there are no indications of an imminent action so far. Endit