ITALY
Telegraph (UK)
By Reuters
24 Apr 2015
Italian police said on Friday they were staging a “vast anti-terrorism” operation against an armed organisation inspired by al-Qaeda whose members may have been planning an attack against the Vatican.
Cagliari chief prosecutor Mauro Mura told reporters that the suspects were also planning to carry out attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
A series of raids across the country was targeting 18 people, they said. Some had been arrested in Italy, including the group’s suspected spiritual leader, but others were believed to have left the country.
“We don’t have proof, we have strong suspicion,” said Mario Carta, head of the police unit leading the investigation said when asked for more details on a possible attack against the seat of the Catholic Church.
He said that, in intercepted telephone calls, investigators had heard the suspects say they would launch a “big jihad in Italy,” conversations that also suggested a target might be the Vatican.
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