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Italy Arrests 28 Pakistanis in Al Qaeda Probe

Italy Arrests 28 Pakistanis in Al Qaeda Probe

Author: Emilio Gioventu
Publication: Reuters
Date: January 31, 2003

Italian police have arrested 28 Pakistanis  suspected of links to al Qaeda in one of the biggest anti-terrorism  operations Italy has seen since the September 11 attacks on the  United States.

Military police burst into an apartment in central Naples on  Wednesday night as part of a routine sweep against illegal  immigration and ended up discovering enough explosives to blow up a  three-story building, officials said on Friday.

They arrested all 28 men staying in the apartment after finding 28  ounces of explosives, 230 feet of fuse and various electronic  detonators crammed behind a false wall.

Islamic religious texts, photos of "jihad" (holy war) martyrs, piles  of false documents, maps of the Naples area, addresses of global  contacts and more than 100 mobile telephones were also found in the  run-down lodgings, police said.

A judicial source said the maps had various targets marked on them  including the headquarters of NATO's southern European command on the  city's outskirts, the U.S. consulate in Naples and a U.S. Navy air  base at Capodichino, outside the city.

Lieutenant Colonel Pat Barnes, a spokesman for U.S. European Command  in Stuttgart, Germany, said protection levels at all U.S. naval  facilities in Italy were raised one notch on Thursday night as a  result of the arrests.

In a statement, the police said they believed the men, aged 20 to 48,  were members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

"The men have been arrested and charged with association with  international terrorism, illegal possession of explosive material,  falsification of documents and receiving stolen goods," the statement  from Naples police headquarters said.

Police said the explosive material was sufficient to make a bomb  capable of blowing up a three-story building and that some of the  fuse was laced with highly flammable nitroglycerine.

As well as the religious texts written in Pakistan's main language  Urdu, cuttings of Pakistani newspapers and manuscripts repeating the  phrase "God is great" were found.

PAKISTAN ANGER

Pakistan's ambassador to Italy, Zafar Hilali, denied the men were  terrorists and said the arrests appeared to form part of a campaign  of targeting innocent Pakistanis living in Italy.

"From the information we have, none of these arrests had anything to  do with terrorism," he said, adding that 24 of the men had applied  for permits to work in Italy and were legal. They were unfortunate  only to be living in what he said was a Mafia-owned house.

"I mean, what are 28 people doing in one place, in a Mafia-ruled  area? Is that how terrorists behave? Do they all live together? And  only one gun has been found -- 28 people and one gun. I mean, what do  they do, take turns?

"Frankly I think it's much ado about nothing, but we are waiting for  the information."

In nearly 18 months since the September 11 attacks, more than 100  people have been arrested in Italy on suspicion of links to terror  organizations. Seventeen have been convicted, but most have been  released for lack of evidence.

Police have grown wary of touting what appear breakthroughs in the  fight against terrorism, and sources said magistrates were irritated  that news of the latest arrests had leaked.

At the same time, the evidence police appear to have seems much  greater than in previous operations of the kind.

Police have made raids throughout Italy in recent months, arresting  five Moroccans near Venice earlier this month.

In that round-up, police seized plastic explosives, an unmarked map  of the London underground and a number of Italian maps on which sites  were circled, including a street leading to a major NATO  installation.

Italy has put itself at the frontline of President Bush's war on  terror and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has repeatedly said he  will do all in his power to track down any Islamic militants hiding  out in the country.
 


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