European police dismantle major jihadist network

By Giulia Paravicini

Arrests in “Operation Jweb” include Ansar-al Islam founder Mullah Krekar.

Anti-terrorist police in Italy, Britain, Norway and Finland arrested 15 people on Thursday suspected of setting up an Islamic terrorist network which planned to kidnap diplomats and to recruit jihadists for war zones including Syria and Iraq.
Those arrested in “Operation Jweb” include Mullah Krekar, an Iraqi Kurd who co-founded Ansar al-Islam, an armed Sunni Islamist group linked to al Qaeda and the Islamic State.

Since 1991, Mullah Krekar has lived in Norway where he has an expulsion order because he poses a threat to national security. That order has not been carried out because he potentially faces the death penalty in Iraq.
Italy’s Carabinieri police said arrest warrants had been issued for a total of 17 people, of whom 16 are Kurdish and one is a Kosovar. The arrests Thursday morning included seven men in Italy, four in the U.K., three in Norway including Krekar and one in Finland. Police in Switzerland, Germany, Greece and the United States were also involved in the operation.


The five-year operation was coordinated by Eurojust, an EU agency which coordinates judicial action against organized crime, and kicked off after initial investigations into the jihadist website www.jarchive.info.
The Carabinieri said in a statement that Mullah Krekar the leader of an international terrorist organization which goes by two names — “Rawti Shax” and “Didi Nwe” — which acts as “a network to recruit volunteers for the conflict and facilitate their travel to war zones.”