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| Europe |
| Turks say al-Qaeda tried to bomb Italy |
| 2005-07-09 |
| The Turkish Security General Directorate has disclosed that Al Qaeda had attempted attacks in Italy was formerly prevented, which is one of the possible targets of the terrorist organization. An intelligence report compiled from foreign secret services by the Directorate includes a chapter called "Activities of Al-Qaeda" which talks about the organization's attempts to attack Italy. The report obtained by Zaman reveals that five Al Qaeda bombing attempts in 2003 were arrested. According to the report Al-Qaeda has a new explosion made of nitro cellulite undetected by security controls. The report quotes Italian counter-terror authorities who warned all security units in the European countries that Al-Qaeda was preparing for an operation to test the new explosion. The Al-Qaeda attack attempts listed in the report are: In June 2003, a bomb was found in Rome. On October 8 2003, experts defused a bomb found in front of the Spanish Airline Iberia's Rome office. On October 16 2003, the Rome Security Directorate received a letter bomb via mail. The bomb which had a mass destructive capability, was defused just in time. On October 12, 2003 a bomb was found in a package in Cagliari Airlines in Sardinia Island defused by the police. The baggage gate of an Alitalia Airlines plane was damaged the same day and the defused bomb was intended for plane. Quoting a US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) source the report says Al-Qaeda may attempt a hijacking in Turkey. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |