Interpol: 50 Daesh Militants Recently Landed in Italy

Date: 31 January 2018 - 20:57

News ID: ۴۹۵۴۶

ROME (Dispatches) -- Interpol has circulated a list of 50 suspected Daesh fighters who it believes have recently landed in Italy by boat, and may be attempting to reach other European countries.
The list, obtained by the Guardian, was drafted by the general secretariat of the international police organization. It was sent on November 29 to the Italian interior ministry, which subsequently distributed it to national anti-terrorism agencies across Europe.
The suspects listed are all Tunisian nationals, some of whom were identified by officials when they landed in Italy. The document shows their first names, surnames and dates of births.
Around 5,500 Tunisians were believed to have travelled to Daesh territory in Syria and Iraq to fight for the terror group, according to UN estimates – more than any other country. Now, after the collapse of its "caliphate,” governments have expressed concern that former fighters may try to mount attacks in Europe.
Four of the suspected Daesh fighters on the Interpol list are already known to European intelligence agencies. One of them "may have already crossed the Italian-French border, to reach Gard, a department in southern France, in the Occitanie region,” the agency says.
"According to the information obtained in the field of international cooperation, the Tunisian citizens are linked to Isis/Daesh and would have reached Europe aboard unidentified boats,” it added.
Last July, the Guardian obtained an Interpol list of 173 suspected Daesh fighters, which the agency said could have been trained to mount attacks in Europe, as revenge for the group’s military defeats in the Middle East.
"Interpol regularly sends alerts and updates to its national central bureaux (NCB) on wanted terrorists and criminals via the agency’s secure global police communications network,” a spokesman for Interpol told the Guardian at the time.
A European counter-terrorism officer told the Guardian that the Tunisians on the most recent list are believed to have arrived in Sicily between July and October 2017 on fishing boats or small vessels that were then abandoned on the beach.