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5 terrorist suspects with ties to Berlin Christmas market attacker arrested in Italy

Xinhua,March 30, 2018 Adjust font size:

ROME, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Italian anti-terrorism police arrested five men with links to Anis Amri, the Tunisian terrorist who drove a hijacked lorry into a Christmas market in Berlin in December 2016, killing 12 people, officials said Thursday.

Amri resurfaced in Italy shortly after that attack and was killed in a shootout with Italian police near Milan on Dec. 23, 2016.

"Five men with links to Anis Amri network were arrested in Rome and Latina (a town near Rome)," state police tweeted. "One of them was supposed to provide (Amri) with fake papers so he could leave Italy."

Searches are ongoing in the Italian capital as well as in the cities of Caserta, Latina, Naples, Matera, and Viterbo, state police said.

Charges include self-training with intent to commit terrorist acts, smuggling illegal immigrants into Italy, and providing them with false identification so they could travel to other parts of Europe, ANSA news agency reported.

Police intervened to pick up the suspects before they could "transition into terrorist activity," Rome Prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco told a televised press conference.

In April 2017, Italian investigators busted an 11-man terrorist cell with ties to Amri based in Germany and operating in Italy. The cell adhered to the fundamentalist Salafi sect of Islam and was "ready to carry out terrorist attacks", Italian police said in a statement at the time.

Thursday's operation follows on the arrest Wednesday in the northern city of Turin of a 23-year-old Moroccan-Italian man who was allegedly plotting a truck bomb attack in the name of IS. On Tuesday, a 59-year-old Egyptian man was arrested for indoctrinating very young children with extremist ideology at an Islamic center in the southern city of Foggia, also in the name of IS.

Italy is on high security alert ahead of the Easter holiday this weekend. "Fear of terrorism affects the choices and travel plans of 12 million Italians at Easter," tweeted Coldiretti farmers association on Thursday.

Holiday travelers opted for village and countryside destinations over artistic and religious sites in the country's cities, which could be possible terrorist targets, according to Coldiretti. Enditem

 

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