ITALY: Italian police have arrested four Moroccans in possession of large quantities of a cyanide compound which they might have intended to use in a bio-terrorist attack on Rome's water supply and the US embassy, officials said.
The men, aged between 30 and 40, were seized early on Tuesday after agents traced them to a southern Rome suburb in a covert operation, police sources said yesterday.
Besides the chemicals, the suspects were found with maps marking the US embassy, charts of the city's water network and a stash of more than 100 forged resident permits.
Police are investigating possible links with Osama bin Laden and officials said a possible terror attack had been averted.
The arrests came as seven Tunisians stand trial in Milan following a crackdown on groups suspected of having ties to bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network. The Tunisians are also suspected of plotting an attack on the US embassy in January, 2001.
The US embassy yesterday praised the security forces "for their excellent work concerning the most recent security threat to the embassy".
But police chiefs and leading anti-terrorist prosecutors, who were meeting behind closed doors, told reporters that leaks regarding the case might have already caused irreparable damage and declined to give details about the probe.
Police sources said that at this point the four men were being held only on suspicion of receiving stolen property.
They were found with about 4 kg of a cyanide compound - potassium ferrocyanide - which is used in gardening but is toxic in large quantities. Seven grams of pure cyanide is sufficient to kill a human, doctors say.
Italy has arrested 20 people suspected of links to extremist Islamic groups since September 11th and has frozen about €345 million in assets.