Italy dismantles network linked to foreign fighters

Italian Interior Minister Angeleno Alfano said on Sunday that a network linked to foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria had been dismantled.

In a press release that was quoted by state television on Sunday, Alfano said that after a long and careful effort using surveillance and analysing documents, computers, phones and telecommunication records, Italian anti-terror forces were able to dismantle a network in Italy linked to foreign fighters.

Alfano said that the operation led to the arrest of a Macedonian citizen living in Italy called Carlino Bragande, who had close links with Firas Barhoumi, a Tunisian foreign fighter returning from fighting in Iraq with Daesh. Barhoumi was also arrested.

According to the minister, Macedonian citizen Obdouls Cortisha was also arrested. Cortisha allegedly has an international arrest warrant against him after he escaped from prison in Macedonia. He had been charged in Macedonia for providing forged documents to those who wish to fight in Syria.

Alfano said: “The activities of monitoring and follow-up carried out by the security services prove, once again, its effectiveness in detecting dangerous people at the right time, as well as preventing them from leaving to the battlefield.”