Kosovan Islamic State 'supporter' held in Italy

Milan, Nov 3 (IANS/AKI) Police in Italy arrested a Kosovan accused of supporting the Islamic State jihadist group and of instigating and condoning international terrorism via the Internet.

The 24-year-old man was detained on Wednesday in the town of Fiesse in the Lombardy region's province of Brescia, anti-terrorism police said.

Police also carried out raids on several properties, the latest in a series of anti-terrorism operations that earlier led to the arrests of seven suspected jihadists including a young Italian woman convert to Islam in Brescia province.

The Kosovan terrorism suspect allegedly posted videos to the Internet urging Muslims to wage Jihad and was in the process of radicalising his small son, investigators said.

Police last week arrested two alleged Egyptian and an Algerian IS supporter in Lombardy and in the northwest Piedmont and Liguria regions in an operation that targeted a suspected Egyptian terrorist cell.

The alleged cell spread jihadist propaganda via social media and sent militants from North Africa to Syria to fight for IS, according to police.

A total of 55 suspected Islamic extremists have been arrested and deported this year and 121 since January 2015, Italy's interior minister Angelino Alfano said on October 3.

--IANS/AKI

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