Seventeen people connected to a suspected “jihadist network” have been arrested in police dawn raids across several European countries led by the Italian ROS Carabinieri.
Four suspects connected to the Rawti Shax or Didi Nwe splinter group of the Ansar Al-Islam Islamic terror group were arrested in the UK, six in Italy, and three in Norway.
Some of the group are believed to have travelled to Iraq and Syria, where they worked with jihadist groups.
The group were allegedly plotting an attack on a jail in Norway, where the group’s leader, Faraj Ahmad Najmuddin, alias Mullah Krekar, is currently imprisoned.
Italy’s ANSA news agency reports those arrested are suspected of a “criminal association for international terrorism”.
Eurojust, the EU’s judicial cooperation unit, which coordinated the raids, said that in addition to the arrests, the Italian, German, Finnish, Norwegian, Swiss and UK authorities conducted searches of 26 premises and seized several items, including electronic devices and documents.
