Italian convert 'key figure' among 10 IS militants arrested

Milan, July 1 (IANS/AKI) An Italian woman who converted to Islam and joined the Islamic State (IS) in Syria is at the centre of an operation in Italy and Albania that led to the arrests on Wednesday of 10 of the Sunni radical group's suspected supporters, investigators said.

Maria Giulia Sergio, 28, from Torre del Greco, near Naples, and her Albanian husband joined IS in Syria last September after Sergio converted to Islam in 2009 and took the name Fatima, according to investigators.

Investigators in what is the first probe of IS in Italy and among the first of the group in Europe managed to trace the couple's journey and gained key insights into the recruitment and movements of jihadis, according to police.

Intercepts by investigators in the probe identified "an important IS figure" -- its coordinator of foreign fighters from Europe -- prosecutor Maurizio Romanelli told journalists.

Sergio's father, mother and sister, who live in Inzago near Milan were among four Italians arrested in Wednesday's operation carried out in three Italian cities, police said.

Sergio's father had allegedly been radicalised by his daughter, had left his job and was planning to join her in Syria using his severance pay and money from selling the family's furniture on the internet, investigators said.

The suspects issued with arrest warrants included four Italians, five Albanians and one Canadian, of whom four were believed to be in Syria and one in another unspecified Arab country, police said.

The role of the Canadian citizen was not clear from the police statement.

Searches and arrests were carried out in the northern cities of Milan and Bergamo and in the Tuscan city of Grosseto, where the family of Sergio's Albanian husband lives, and where he and Sergio stayed before leaving for Syria, according to investigators.

--IANS/AKI

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