Four people were arrested by Italian authorities yesterday and issued arrest warrants for two more people in Syria who were allegedly plotting to attack the Vatican and the Israeli embassy in Rome.Newsweek is reporting on the arrest of several men who received orders from ISIS to conduct an attack in Rome during the Holy Year of Mercy.
Police were able to intercept messages sent from ISIS to one of the suspects, Abderrahim Moutahrrick, which read: “Dear brother Abderrahim, I send you... the bomb poem... listen to the sheik and strike,” which was in reference to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The message was sent by Mohamed Koraichi, a Moroccan who left Italy last year to join ISIS in Syria. Warrants for the arrest of Koraichi and his wife, have been issued.
Milan prosecutor Maurizio Romanelli said Moutahrrick planned to attack the Vatican and the Israeli embassy in Rome and told another suspect, Abderrahmane Khachia, 23, in a monitored conversation: “I want to hit Israel in Rome.”
Moutahrrick also revealed in an intercepted message to Koraichi that he was planning to bring his wife and children to ISIS-held territory in Syria soon.
“For these enemies I swear if I manage to bring my family to safety, I swear I will be the first to attack...in this crusading Italy...the Vatican with the will of God,” he allegedly told Koraichi in an audio message intercepted by authorities in March.
“This is a new profile, because it was not a generic indication, but an indication given to a specific person who was invited to act within the territory of the Italian state,” Romanelli told the Italian news agency Ansa.
Franco Roberti, Italy’s top anti-terror prosecutor, said there was no indication that the attacks were imminent, nor were any arms or explosives found; however, authorities consider the suspects to be “very dangerous.”
The probe also proves that U.S. intelligence warnings about the imminence of an attack in Italy are true.
As Roberti told the Associated Press. "There's no doubt, the danger is there."
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