MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Among those detained are persons responsible for “bloody terrorist acts” in Pakistan, the Italian State Police said in a statement.
The “fundamentalist network,” based in Sardinia, was also involved in the smuggling of migrants, police said. Two of the suspects were allegedly part of a group that had been protecting former al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, killed in 2011.
Arrests were made in seven different provinces of Italy.
According to investigation sources interviewed by the local La Stampa newspaper, the goal of the terrorists was to intimidate the local population and to force the Pakistani government to give up fighting against the Taliban militias and supporting US military forces in Afghanistan.
Last month, Italian authorities arrested two Albanian nationals suspected of recruiting for the Islamic State and one Italian citizen, allegedly an author of an ISIL propaganda document.
