Highlights:
Italian counterterrorist police have arrested a 22-year old Somali Imam who has been seeking asylum in Rome for planning a terror attack in the city of Rome.
He has also been accused of intense and vehement proselytism among the jihadi community in the ‘Happy Family’ Migration Center in Campobasso in southern of Italian region of Molise.
Summary:
A 22-year old Somali Imam and asylum seeker was arrested at the ‘Happy Family’ Migration Center in Campobasso in southern of Italian region of Molise by police who said that there was enough evidence that the imam was planning an attack in Rome.
The imam was accused of intensely trying to convert migrants for jihadi as he sought to recruit for the Somalia-based terrorist group al Shabaab.
The counterterrorist police in Italy conducted a thorough investigation and surveillance on the imam for over 2 months with cameras, telephone conversations’ interception revealing the extent of his intentions in Italy was to orchestrate an attack in Rome.
The imam’s attack target is projected to have been the iconic Rome’s Termini train station which would have yielded untold causalities had he gone through with it. Audio and written material that the Imam used to proselyte for jihadi were recovered that showed he praised the recent attacks on European targets as just the beginning of a much larger ‘awakening’ by the militants.
Counterterrorist unit in Europe have intensified their preventive offensive against ISIS, Al Qaeda, Al Shabaab and other terrorist organizations to preempt and prevent would be dangerous attacks against innocent civilian targets.
