[ADN Kronos] A 41 year-old Algerian man with alleged links to a terror organisation has been arrested in the Italian capital, Rome. The man is wanted by Algerian authorities for forming and participating in the Islamist organisation, the Armed Islamic Group or GIA.Police said the man had been on the run since 2003, after an extradition order was issued against him.
The man, who at the time of his arrest held an Irish passport, was arrested by anti-terrorism police or DIGOS, at a hotel in Rome. He was detained after he matched aspects of a fugitive profile issued by international authorities.
| Well done, O clever and alert Italian police! |
| Oh dear. He lied on his citizenship form? |
According to the US think-tank, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Armed Islamic Group waged a violent war against Algeria's secular military regime in the 1990's. It developed after its members appeared to "trace their radicalization to Afghanistan, where they fought as mujahadeen, or Islamic guerillas, against the Soviet army from 1979 to 1989," the council said on its website. "In its most active period in the 1990s the GIA established a presence in France, Belgium, Britain, and Italy. While the GIA is now largely defunct, (carrying out its latest attack in 2001) it remains designated as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US state department."
The council also said most of the GIA's members may have defected in recent years and joined Al-Qaeda or its sister organisation, the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
The Algerian man was being held at Rome's Regina Coeli jail while he awaited extradition to his native country. Authorities there have been informed of his arrest.