Police across Europe arrest 15 believed to be part of a Sunni terrorist group

In a multinational sting years in the making, police across Europe arrested 15 members of a Sunni Kurdish militant group that was planning terrorist attacks in Norway and the Middle East, Italian police said Thursday.

The group, known as Rawti Shax (New Course) and allied with the Islamic State extremist group, was reportedly composed of cells drawn from the Kurdish diaspora in Europe, which communicated through the Internet.

Police said the group planned to target British and Norwegian diplomats but gave no details of any specific plots. The group also aimed to overthrow the leadership of the Kurdish region of Iraq, investigators said.

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Early-morning raids in Italy, Britain, Norway, Finland, Germany and Switzerland were led by Italian police, the climax of a five-year investigation that Italian anti-terrorism chief Franco Roberti called “incredibly difficult and complicated.”

Eurojust, the European Union agency that coordinated the raids, said the suspects would be charged with international terrorism.

Intent on introducing sharia, or Islamic law, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, the group recruited fighters, officials said. The group was also seeking to free its leader, Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad, known as Mullah Krekar, from jail in Norway, where he is being held after issuing death threats, authorities said.

During the investigation, Italy-based Nauroz Abdul Rahman, considered a senior member of the group, was overheard on an Italian police wiretap urging attacks on British and Norwegian diplomats in the Middle East, the Italian police said.

A police report released in Italy on Thursday described Rahman calling two suspected militants in Britain and “advocating an attack on Western embassies outside Europe or the kidnap ‘of the head of a British embassy’” in order to obtain the release of Ahmad.

In other calls, the report said, he urges attacks on embassies in “Baghdad or in the south [of Iraq] and in Iran, as well as in Arab countries, but not in Europe.”

Rahman also promised missile attacks in Norway, to “turn Norway into Lebanon,” if Ahmad were harmed while in custody.

Italian police said the local cell was led from the northern Italian town of Merano by Rahman, described as a charismatic recruiter of fighters prepared to die for the group’s cause. One recruit, Hasan Saman Jalal, who was arrested Thursday by Italian police, reportedly was overheard telling Rahman, “It is good to die for God. When I will be killed, my sons will be proud.”

Italian police reported that four recruits, including militants based in Switzerland and Finland, were dispatched to Syria. Two are believed to have died in combat.

The group raised about $840 to send a Kosovar, Eldin Hodza, to Syria via Turkey in 2014, according to authorities. Monitored by Italian police, Hodza reached an Islamic State training camp before returning to Italy for unknown reasons.

Kington is a special correspondent.

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