Posted on 05/09/2004 6:27:33 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
ROME - Anti-terrorism police arrested the Algerian cleric of a mosque and four Tunisians Sunday in a crackdown authorities said was aimed at preventing an al-Qaida-linked cell from sending suicide attackers to Iraq (news - web sites).
The suspects were seized in pre-dawn raids in three cities in the northern Tuscany region, Genoa's Police Chief Oscar Fiorolli said. Genoa, a northern port city, began the investigations that led to the arrests.
The suspects allegedly belonged to a cell of Ansar al-Islam, an organization based in northern Iraq with links to al-Qaida, Fiorolli told the Associated Press in Rome in a telephone interview.
"Their departure for Iraq was near," Fiorolli said. "We don't know where in Iraq they were going, but they were willing to be suicide attackers."
Fiorolli said the suspects' alleged intentions were learned through telephone taps, and he indicated authorities decided to move in before the suspects could leave Italy.
"It was clear they intended to reach Iraq and strike Western targets," Fiorolli told reporters at a news conference in Genoa.
A private Italian TV report said the group had also been sizing up potential Italian targets, including a cinema and a shopping mall on the outskirts of Florence, but Fiorolli denied that.
"There is no indications they were planning an attack in Italy," the police chief told The AP.
The arrested imam, Maamari Rashid, had come to Italy to replace a Moroccan imam, Mohamed Rafik, arrested last year in Italy and wanted by Morroco for alleged involvement in the 2003 terrorist bombings in Casablanca.
Italian authorities have approved Morocco's request for the extradition of Rafik, but investigators have said he is unlikely to be sent to Morocco while Italian investigations of suspected Islamic terrorist cells are active.
Although Sunday's raids on more than a dozen homes took place in Tuscany, Genoa investigators had begun the probe because the suspects had legal residence in the port city, a major transit point in Italy for northern Africans.
Fiorolli said investigators seized large quantities of written material in the raids, which were conducted in Florence, Prato and Siena.
Anti-terrorism investigators have described Italy as a key logistical base for Islamic terrorists, especially for recruitment of potential suicide attackers and procurement of false documents.
UPI on the Wash Times ... Al Qaida cell members arrested in Italy
Masked Italian anti-terrorism police officers, right, arrest an unidentified man believed to be a member of the Ansar al-Islam extremist group, in Florence, Italy, Sunday, May 9, 2004. Anti-terrorism police squads arrested the Algerian imam of a Florence mosque and four Tunisians Sunday in a crackdown on the Ansar al-Islam extremist group, agencies reported Sunday. (AP Photo/Francesco Bellini)
This is not possible since we all know that the Iraqi's detest al Qaeda and bin Laden and would never establish links with radical Islam or Saudi Wahhabism.
Well, at least the liberals know this for fact - it was printed in the NYT, the Washington Post, the LA Times and broadcast on CNN,NBC,CBS,ABC,NPR.
Every Mosque is a sanctuary for a Muslim terrorist "cell."
Terrorist imams. Great religion they have there.
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