European terror-recruiting cell linked to IS broken up
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European law enforcement authorities announced Thursday they had broken up a Norway-based Iraqi Kurdish recruitment ring that radicalized prospects via the Internet and sent them to fight in Iraq and Syria alongside the Islamic State group. Thirteen people were arrested in Italy, Britain and Norway.
Italian Carabinieri Gen. Giuseppe Governale called it "the most important police operation in Europe in 20 years."Italian authorities said the ideological leader of the ring was Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad, known as Mullah Krekar, who is in prison in Norway. He had been a founder of the now-defunct Ansar al-Islam insurgent group of Sunni Kurds, which aimed to install an Islamic caliphate in Iraqi Kurdistan and merged with the Islamic State group last year.
