07/11/2007
Twenty Algerians and Tunisians were arrested in an anti-terror swoop in Italy, Britain, France and Portugal on Tuesday (November 6th). The operation was ordered by Milan anti-terrorist police, who claim the suspects were setting up militant cells to recruit suicide bombers for Iraq and Afghanistan. The suspects are also accused of hiding terrorists, facilitating illegal immigration and falsifying identity documents.
The arrests were the result of an investigation that started in 2003, Italian police said, adding that some of the cells, made up of Tunisians and Algerians, had the goal of creating an Islamic empire stretching from Morocco to China.