10 Qaida-linked ‘militants’ held for 2010 Vatican plot

Rome, April 24 

The Italian police on Friday arrested 10 persons and were looking for eight others suspected of belonging to an armed group linked to Al-Qaida who had plotted attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan and at least at one point the Vatican. 

Some of the suspects, who are all Pakistanis and Afghans, were arrested in early morning raids across Italy. The police burst into the home of the group’s suspected spiritual leader, in the northern city of Bergamo, a video released by them showed. 

Though the 18 suspects were plotting attacks mainly in their native countries, phone taps suggest the Vatican was also a target, said Mauro Mura, chief prosecutor of the Sardinian city of Cagliari, where the group based its headquarters. 

Mura said officials had indications of a possible plot for an attack against the Vatican in 2010 by members of the group, who had continued to operate across Italy for years after that. 

He said there were indications of a plan for a suicide attack in a crowded place. Italian officials have for years feared a possible attack by militants in St. Peter's Square and have increased security there. 

In the tapped conversations, the suspects discuss “a big jihad in Italy”, added Mario Carta, head of the police unit on the case. They reference the word “baba”, which could mean the Pope, Carta said. 

“We don’t have proof, we have strong suspicion,” that the Holy See was a possible target, he added. 

Carta told Reuters by telephone that the group in subsequent years "realised that we were watching their movements". 

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the hypothetical attacks were in the past, and that the new disclosures were not a matter for concern. But Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said: “We are all afraid because we don’t know what can happen.” 

Italy, like other European countries, has been on heightened alert for possible terrorist schemes in the wake of the January attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. 

European capitals are particularly worried about possible “sleeper” militants, apparently living normal lives in their countries, who may at some point in the future be activated to stage attacks at home or abroad. 

Italian officials are also concerned that members of terrorist groups might be hiding among the 

thousands of migrants who arrive in desperate state on Europe’s shores every week. 

Mura said the group had a large number of weapons and numerous followers willing to carry out acts of terrorism.  Police wire taps had determined that two people among the 18 targeted by arrest warrants were suspected of being part of a group that had protected Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed by US special forces at his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan in 2011, the police said in a statement.   — Reuters