(Reuters) Italian police said on Monday they had arrested a 20-year-old Somali man suspected of having been a member of Islamic State and who had threatened to bomb churches in Italy, including St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.
They told reporters in the southern city of Bari that the man, identified as Omar Moshin Ibrahim, was detained last Thursday and that a magistrate had charged him on Monday with instigating terrorism and supporting terrorism.
Police said Ibrahim was stopped following a month-long surveillance operation as he was about to leave Bari where he worked for a cleaning company.
The investigation, the police officials said, included wiretaps in which Ibrahim was heard telling someone, “Let’s put bombs in all the churches of Italy. Where is the largest church? It is in Rome.”
