London: Four alleged jihadists face trial for plotting to kidnap British diplomats abroad. Italian authorities who detained the men – aged between 32 and 52 – said they were part of an al-Qaeda splinter group using the “dark web” to recruit suicide bombers, establish “sleeper cells” inside Europe and attack targets overseas.
The four - named as Awat Wahab Hamasalih from Birmingham; Hamad e Bakr Rahim, from Hull; Zana Abdul Rahman, of Derby; and Kadir Sharif, from Sheffield - were detained under European arrest warrants issued by Italy and are due to appear at Westminster magistrates’ court in west London on Friday. They are believed to have been granted refugee status in Britain from Iraq.
Police refused to give details about the detained men.
Giuseppe Governale of the Italian police's Special Operations Group, said the men were planning "attacks against Norwegian and British diplomats in the Middle East". The plot is alleged to have included kidnappings of diplomats to negotiate the release of Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad, a radical Iraqi preacher, who has been in jail in Norway since 2012. The 59-year-old Kurdish Iraqi is listed as a terrorist by the United States and United Nations.
Governale said the group was intending to carry out attacks on members of parliament in Norway.
The operation, which he described as the “most important police operation in Europe in the last 20 years spanned six countries and had "dismantled an integrated cell.”
He said the network "was about to continue sending many other jihadists abroad”. "This was an incredibly difficult and complicated investigation that has been going on for five years," he added.
