‘Terror suspects planned Vatican attack’

April 24, 2015 06:01 pm | Updated 06:11 pm IST - MILAN

Islamic extremists suspected in a > bomb attack in Peshawar market in 2009 that killed more than 100 people had also planned an attack against the Vatican in 2010 that was never carried out, an Italian prosecutor said on Friday.

Wiretaps collected as part of investigation into an Islamic terror network operating in Italy gave “signals of some preparation for a possible attack” at the Vatican, prosecutor Mauro Mura told a news conference in Cagliari, Sardinia. That included the arrival of a suicide bomber in Rome. He eventually left Italy, Mr. Mura said, although it wasn’t clear why.

The revelation about the planned attack against the Vatican came on Friday as police said they were arresting 18 suspected extremists, including two purported bodyguards for Osama bin Laden, accused of staging attacks in Pakistan aimed at stopping that government’s actions against the Taliban.

The investigation was launched in 2005, but Mr. Mura said it was slowed when news of the investigation leaked to the media, alerting the suspects that they were being watched.

Authorities said some of the suspects sought in the probe were responsible for “numerous bloody acts of terrorism in Pakistan,” including the October 2009 explosion in a market in Peshawar in which more than 100 people died. Telephone wiretaps indicated that two of the suspects were part of a network of people who protected bin Laden in Pakistan, a police statement said.

Vatican downplays terror threat, says not really concerned

The Vatican is downplaying the significance of an alleged planned attack against it, saying the threat dates from 2010 and therefore is not relevant or of particular concern today.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, issued a statement after prosecutors in Sardinia revealed details of the purported plot on Friday.

Lombardi said: “From what it appears, this concerns a hypothesis that dates from 2010 which didn’t occur. It has therefore no relevance today and no reason for particular concern.”

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