World Jewish News
''Once we had tracked down the suspect, we were able to access his computer remotely and discovered a video detailing the security situation at the synagogue, including numbers of officers on guard and access routes," Italian police said.
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Milan synagogue targeted by Moroccan suspected of Al-Qaeda links arrested in Italy
16.03.2012, Anti-Semitism Italian police arrested Thursday a Moroccan man suspected of having links to Al-Qaeda and planning terrorist attacks on targets including the synagogue of the Via della Gustalla in Milan, Italy's counter-terrorism unit said.
"A 20-year-old Moroccan man, Mohamed Jarmoune, was arrested at dawn in Brescia (north of Italy), after investigators discovered messages he had posted on websites talking about a possible attack on sensitive targets," said the unit's head in Cagliari, Alfonso Polverino.
"He had also posted information on how to make explosive devices," he said.
The special operations unit (DIGOS) was tipped off by a US anti-terrorism division that a 20-year-old Moroccan, going by the nickname 'Al Alamazighi', was in contact with international Al-Qaeda suspects.
"Once we had tracked down the suspect, we were able to access his computer remotely and discovered a video detailing the security situation at the synagogue, including numbers of officers on guard and access routes," he said.
The DIGOS unit in the Sardinian capital Cagliari then worked together with police on the ground in the northern Italian city of Brescia, where the suspect had lived since he was six years old.
"While at this point we do not think the suspect belongs to a terrorist cell in Italy, we are searching for possible contacts abroad. We will know more once we have looked at the computers that were seized from his house," he added.
In the search for possible accomplices, DIGOS is collaborating with US and British authorities. British police arrested a Yemeni woman in London Thursday who is known to have been in contact with the Moroccan man. "At approximately 0430 hours this morning officers from the Metropolitan Police counter terrorism command arrested a 40-year-old woman on suspicion of offences under section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000," a police spokesman said.
"She was arrested in South London and taken to a local police station where she remains in custody. A search warrant was executed at a residential premises in connection with the arrest and is ongoing."
"We are liaising with Italian authorities to establish whether there is a link," the spokesman said.
EJP
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