ROME—European law enforcement authorities announced Thursday they had broken up a Norway-based Iraqi Kurdish recruitment ring that radicalized prospects via the Internet and sent them to fight in Iraq and Syria alongside the ISIS group. Thirteen people were arrested in Italy, Britain and Norway.
Italian Carabinieri Gen. Giuseppe Governale called it “the most important police operation in Europe in 20 years.”
Italian authorities said the ideological leader of the ring was Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad, known as Mullah Krekar, who is in prison in Norway. He had been a founder of the now-defunct Ansar al-Islam insurgent group of Sunni Kurds, which aimed to install an Islamic caliphate in Iraqi Kurdistan and merged with the Islamic State group last year.
Once living in exile in Norway, Ahmad formed another group, Rawti Shax, to educate a new generation of Iraqi Kurds in Europe to eventually return to violently overthrow the government in the Iraqi Kurdish region and replace it with a radical caliphate, Italian police said in a statement.
He developed a network of followers across Europe who communicated by Internet chats, which Italian police monitored, leading to Thursday’s arrests. Eurojust, the European Union judicial cooperation agency, said 13 people were arrested in Italy, Britain and Norway.
Italian authorities said arrest warrants were issued against 17 people, but at least one of them was killed in Iraq in 2014. The discrepancy couldn’t be immediately explained.
The suspects are accused of international terrorism association.
Ahmad’s Norwegian lawyer, Brynjar Meling, told reporters in Norway “suspicions against Krekar have largely been based on false accusations.”
The emergence of the Islamic State group provided Rawti Shax with a training ground, and at least six people were recruited to fight in Iraq and Syria, Italian officials told a news conference. At least two died in the region.
