At least 15 people associated with a Norway-based Kurdish terror
group were arrested in a multi-nation European sweep Thursday, Italian
authorities said, with officials asserting the group was helping ISIS and
plotting attacks against European diplomats.
The coordinated
arrests in Italy, the United Kingdom, Norway and Finland targeted alleged
members of Rawti Shax, a group said to be a European offshoot of the Iraqi
Kurdish jihadist network Ansar al Islam, which fought an insurgency campaign
with al Qaeda in Iraq last decade.
Among those
arrested was Mullah Krekar, an Ansar al Islam founder and Iraqi Kurd who lives
in Norway and allegedly leads Rawti Shax from the Scandinavian nation, Italian
police told reporters Thursday.
Krekar has been
in and out of Norwegian prison, and his group was organizing attacks against
European diplomats because of one of his most recent imprisonments -- with
Krekar allegedly orchestrating the network while behind bars, Italian police
said.
"The group
was organizing, via (the Internet), hostile activities against diplomats from
Norway and the United Kingdom, to be carried out in the Middle East" in
retaliation for a recent Krekar imprisonment, said Gen. Giuseppe Governale,
commander of a special operations unit of Italy's military police.
A news release
from Italian authorities went further, saying the group was plotting "to
seize Norwegian diplomatic personnel present in a country in Europe or the
Middle East ... in order to negotiate with the authorities for the release of
Mullah Krekar in Norway."
Beyond
sticking up for Krekar, the group -- having switched allegiances from al Qaeda
to its rival ISIS -- primarily aims to help ISIS take over Kurdish portions of
Iraq, according to Eurojust, the judicial cooperation arm of the European
Union.
"(Rawti
Shax) became active in providing logistical and financial support to recruiting
foreign terrorist fighters to be sent to Syria and Iraq, also with the intent
of training them for (a) future conflict" in Iraq's Kurdish autonomous
region, Eurojust said.
According to
an indictment against the 15, Italian prosecutors said one defendant is accused
of calling "for violent acts such as kidnappings and attacks to be
performed in Europe," and another is accused "in reference to
planning of retaliatory terrorist actions to be performed in Norway."
Further
details about the alleged plots weren't immediately available.
When asked for
comment about the alleged plots against diplomats, the Norwegian Justice
Ministry referred CNN to the Norwegian Police Security Service, or PST. That
agency did not immediately respond to CNN's requests for comment.
The British
Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it had no comment.
15 arrested; others sought
The arrests were directed by prosecutors
in Rome, with cooperation with counterparts in other nations, after website
surveillance led Italian police in 2010 to detect an alleged Italy-based Rawti
Shax cell dedicated to recruiting militants, Italian authorities said.
On Thursday,
seven people were arrested in Italy, four in the United Kingdom, three in
Norway and one in Finland, Italian officials said. Police also searched
premises in Germany and Switzerland.
All but one of
those arrested are members of the Kurdish
ethnic group; the other is from Kosovo, officials said.
"Some
suspects could not be found, as they are believed to have traveled to the
Middle East (Syriaand Iraq) to join
jihadist organizations," including ISIS, Eurojust said.
Italian
officials said Rawti Shax essentially stems from Ansar al Islam, which fought
against the new Iraqi government after a U.S.-led invasion toppled Iraqi
dictator Saddam Hussein's regime
in 2003.
Some Ansar
members migrated to Europe after they were flushed out of Iraq, formed Rawti Shax and recently
aligned with al Qaeda's rival, ISIS, Italian prosecutors said.
"(Rawti
Shax's) primary objective is to violently overthrow" the leaders of the
Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq and replace them "with a
caliphate governed by Sharia law," Eurojust said in a news release.
ISIS, which
calls itself the Islamic State, captured parts of Syria and Iraq for what it
calls its Islamic caliphate. In Iraq, one of the forces opposing ISIS is the
Peshmerga, the Kurdish troops who defend the Kurdish autonomous region in Iraq.
On Thursday, the
Peshmerga, backed by air support from a U.S.-led coalition, launched an offensiveto take back the
Iraqi town of Sinjar from ISIS.
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