| Italian and Lebanese authorities have arrested 10 alleged terrorists, thwarting plans to blow up the Italian Embassy in Beirut in a car bomb attack, the Italian news agency ANSA said Tuesday. Plans for the attack were in an advanced phase, ANSA said. Police also seized about 220 pounds of explosives, the Italian news agency said. Defense Minister Antonio Martino issued a statement to thank the Italian military intelligence service, SISMI, which carried out the operation in cooperation with Libanese and Syrian authorities. According to ANSA, the arrests were carried out in Lebanon. The suspects, whose nationalities were not immediately clear, were alleged to be members of a Lebanese cell of the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, an extremist organization believed to have ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida, ANSA said. |