ROME AND MADRID — Italian anti-terrorism police Tuesday dismantled an alleged Islamic extremist cell accused of plotting to bomb a military base, police stations and civilian targets in an industrial area north of Milan.
Investigators arrested two Moroccan immigrants accused of posing a more urgent and direct threat to Italy than in previous cases in the country, which mostly have involved recruitment or logistics for terrorist networks in Iraq and North Africa.
The elite anti-terrorism division of the national police launched the raid after surveillance revealed the suspects were researching explosives techniques, discussing attacks and conducting reconnaissance, authorities said. The alleged targets included a military base, police stations, a nightclub and a supermarket. An additional eight men remain under investigation.
"We were able to intervene before they struck," Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said in a televised interview. "It is certainly a new and worrying situation because for the first time we are talking about people who had planned attacks in Italy. We are verifying whether it is an extended network or whether it is an isolated case."
The two alleged leaders arrested on suspicion of international terrorism exemplify a serious emerging threat in the West, anti-terrorism officials said: a previously unknown group that was inspired by Al Qaeda's ideology but began plotting violence without training or direction from an established network.
Police described Abdelkader Ghafir, 44, and Rachid Ilhami, 31, as family men and legal residents, a profile that contrasts with the combat-hardened militants, petty criminals and illegal immigrants who have dominated past cases. The men were well established in the area north of Milan, an expanse of well-off towns and specialized industries that attract an immigrant workforce.
"This is classic do-it-yourself terrorism," Bruno Megale, chief of the anti-terrorism unit in Milan, said in a telephone interview. "These were people who worked, had been here 10 years, lived better than average. But they were consumed by Al Qaeda ideology, sermons, videos. They indoctrinated others, they became intensely motivated and, little by little, they reached the point of preparing operations."
Ilhami, a welder, had taught his 2-year-old son to refer to Osama bin Laden as Uncle Osama, authorities said.
