(AKI) - The Italian government investigated 216 terror threats against Italy last year, concluding that Islamist cells were the "primary threat to the public interest, both inside Italy and abroad," according to a report released on Tuesday. The extent of the terror threat was revealed in an anti-terrorism report presented to the department of information security.Al-Qaeda's leadership "is still playing a central role" in international terrorism, the report said, adding that investigators were giving priority to probes of jihadist plots. In Italy, Islamist terror cells were "fluid and scattered", tending to coalesce around "charismatic individuals," the report stated.
Prisons are an increasingly important jihadist recruiting ground, where convicted Islamist terrorists are indoctrinating young detainees, the report said. It said the northern region of Lombardy is one of the main strongholds of Islamist radicalism, "where elements already known to the police are being joined by new recruits and gradually replaced."
Another hotspot is the southern Campania region surrounding Naples. "Here, foreign extremists are finding synergies with North African counterfeiters," said the report.
Other sensitive areas include the northern Piemonte, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna regions and the central Tuscany region, the report noted. "The threat to Italy has become a rapidly changing and unpredictable one," it said.
The report stressed the importance of the Internet to Islamist terrorists in Italy and elsewhere. "The Internet has become a primary reference point and source of inspiration for so-called lone terrorists seeking to wage jihad," the report said.
The "multinational" nature of jihadist cells and networks, the increasing number of "home-grown" militants, and the importance of the Internet for radicalising, recruiting and training, characterise Islamist terrorism throughout Europe, the report concluded.
