ROME
CNN
[with video]
By Greg Botelho, Don Melvin and Hada Messia, CNN
Rome (CNN) Italian authorities said they launched a “vast anti-terrorism operation” Friday, going after suspects associated with al Qaeda who had discussed a list of targets, including the Vatican.
Some members of the terror cell even had direct contact with Osama bin Laden before his 2011 death in Pakistan, Italy’s state-run ANSA news agency reported. Police said they got this information from wiretaps.
Wiretaps and other intelligence revealed the group’s plans to carry out terror attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as Italy, according to Caligari Chief Prosecutor Mauro Mura.
Some evidence indicated the Vatican was among the targets being considered. This talk happened in March 2010, around the time a possible suicide bomber from Afghanistan had entered Italy, Mura said.
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