Italy Should Join Russia in Anti-ISIL Efforts, Help Find A321 Terrorists

Italy's Lega Nord party called on Rome to join Russia in its fight against the Islamic State and to provide Moscow with assistance in identifying those responsible for the crash of the Russian-owned A321 passenger plane, party member Claudio D'Amico told Sputnik.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin requested the Foreign Ministry to seek assistance from partners around the world in the ongoing investigation of the A321 crash after the Russian Federal Security Service confirmed that a terror attack was responsible for downing the Russian aircraft.

"Lega Nord Italian party says that Italy should join a coalition with Russia fighting IS in the region and support the Russian call to searching for and punishing those involved in the A321 passenger plane of creating the international coalition following the attacks," D'Amico said.

According to the Russian Federal Security Service head Alexander Bortnikov, the detonation of a homemade explosive device with an equivalent of 1 kilogram of TNT caused the crash that killed 224 people over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on October 31.

At a meeting announcing the conclusions of the A321 crash probe, Putin stressed that the ongoing Russian military operation against terrorists in Syria, launched on September 30 following a request from President Bashar Assad, should be intensified so that the perpetrators understood that revenge was unavoidable.

Italy's Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti said on Tuesday she eliminated the possibility of country's participation in a military operation in Syria, confirming, however, the build-up of Italian military mission in Iraq.

EU Abstains From Russia Anti-IS Effort Over Fears of Migrant Terror Attacks

EU member states have not joined the anti-terrorist campaign currently being carried out by Russia in Syria because they are afraid it could trigger terrorist attacks by migrants who have arrived in the bloc, Claudio D'Amico told Sputnik.

"Italy and other EU countries are scared [to join Russia] as they allowed many Muslim refugees from the region to enter through their borders and now they are afraid to become a target of future terrorist attacks."

He added that the EU states "must fight terrorists before they come and fight us in our own countries."

D'Amico's statement comes five days after a series of suicide bombings and shooting attacks across Paris on November 13 left 129 dead and over 350 injured. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Greek and Serbian officials said that they had registered a Syrian passport recovered near the body of one of the November 13 suicide bombers as belonging to an asylum seeker last month. The passport, thought to be forged, has reignited fear among some Europeans that extremists are hiding among the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have arrived in Europe this year.