Seventeen Algerians and Tunisians were arrested across Europe yesterday in an anti-terrorism operation led by Italian authorities. Italian police said the suspects were arrested in Italy, Britain, France and Portugal as part of a major anti-terror sweep against a cell based in northern Italy that was recruiting would-be suicide bombers to carry out attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The suspects were wanted on charges ranging from association with the aim of committing international terrorism to falsifying documents to aid illegal immigrants.
Eleven suspects were arrested in the northern Italian cities of Milan, Reggio Emilia, Imperia and Bergamo, while nine were arrested on warrants issued in France, Britain and Portugal, Italian news agencies reported. Portuguese police confirmed one person was arrested in Portugal.
Italian Interior Minister Giuliano Amato praised the operation as an example of strong cooperation among European countries. Amato said the suspects were primarily Tunisian.
Italian police said the main cell was based in the northern region of Lombardy, and that intercepted phone calls indicated that the roots of militancy in the group dated back as far as 1998. The group also exhibited signs of caution, with one member saying, "things are being done with extreme calm, haste does not bring the desired results," a transcript of one of the intercepted calls read.
"Once more, the central role of Milan and Lombardy in the panorama of Islamic militants has been confirmed," the Italian military police said in a statement.
Police executing the warrants discovered al-Qaeda manuals on how to produce explosives, detonation devices and poisons as well as instructions on guerrilla techniques.
The leaders of the group were named in the arrest warrants as Dridi Sabri, Mehidi Ben Nasr and Imed Ben Zarkaoui, all of whom operated out of Italy, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.
"The cells were not planning attacks in Italy but were indoctrinating and recruiting people to send to places where terrorist attacks are an everyday activity," Giampaolo Ganzer of the Milan anti-terrorism police told a news conference.
The police investigation began in 2003, he said, adding that three suspects were still at large. Police originally said 20 people had been arrested.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese