ROME (AFP) — Police launched dawn raids in Milan on Tuesday targeting about 20 people suspected of recruiting suicide bombers for attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"We can confirm that 20 arrests are currently being acted on," a police spokesman in Milan told AFP. Milan's anti-terrorist police would issue more details at a press conference at 11:00 am (1000 GMT), he added.
The anti-terrorist operation ordered by a Milan court was also under way in France, Britain and Portugal, according to the Italian all-news channel Sky-TG24.
The raids uncovered remote electronic detonators and poisons, as well as instructions on guerrilla warfare techniques, ANSA news agency said.
Officers were searching for foreign nationals suspected of having formed "jihadist" cells, ANSA said, adding that the investigation had begun in 2004.
In Italy, searches were being carried out in northern Lombardy, Liguria and Emilia Romagna, Sky said.
Although warrants had been issued for about 20 people, it was not clear how many had been arrested.
The suspects are also accused of falsifying identity documents allowing them to travel clandestinely from one European country to another.
The suspected terrorist cell apparently was not planning any attacks in Italy, ANSA said.
The investigation stemmed from the breakup in 2002 of a radical Islamist cell based in Italy with connections in France, ANSA said.
A bi-annual report in August warned that Italy faces "heightened risks" of attack and an influx of Muslim radicals, and cited 60 threats in the first half of 2007.
Italy saw a "rise in Islamic meeting places which, even if they are primarily organised and frequented by law-abiding people, remain potentially exposed to infiltration by radicals," the report said.
It highlighted "networks of north African origin" while stating that "interactions or contacts with other radical milieux from the Balkans, the Middle East or central Asia" were also possible.
Anti-terrorist operations are frequent in Italy, mainly concerned with uncovering cells that provide logistical support such as fake identity documents and money transfers.
An Iraqi said to be close to Al-Qaeda was arrested at Venice airport in September on suspicion of belonging to a group blamed for several kidnappings and attacks in Iraq.
Hussien Saber Fadhil was allegedly planning to go to Iraq to carry out attacks using aircraft to be purchased from an Italian firm.
In July three Moroccans were arrested in central Perugia suspected of belonging to a jihadist cell close to Al-Qaeda and engaging in training to commit terrorist attacks.
Italy made support for international terrorism a crime after the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington.
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