Moroccan-Italian national probed for terror links

Italian prosecutors are investigating a Moroccan-Italian woman, who was arrested by its anti-terrorism unit, media reports have said.

The 35-year-old woman, known only by initials R.M., reportedly went to Syria with her three small children for the love of an extremist from the Islamic State (IS) group, whom she had met online, ANSA news agency quoted DIGOS anti-terrorism police as saying on Tuesday.

She was arrested in Milan's Malpensa airport on December 23 on an international warrant from France, where the Italian father of her children lives and where he had reported her missing.

The woman, reportedly seven months pregnant, could face charges of international terrorism in Italy, Xinhua news agency reported.

Authorities tracked her down in November, when she was expelled from Turkey on her way back from Syria.

French prosecutors will try to determine whether she intended to draft her children into IS child combat units, according to ANSA.

The woman has been incarcerated in Milan's San Vittore prison ahead of a December 29 extradition hearing.

Returning foreign fighters, or Europeans who went to fight in IS ranks in Syria and Iraq, are considered a major terrorist threat now that IS has largely been militarily defeated.

--IANS

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