Italian anti-terrorism police today arrested two North Africans suspected of being Islamic militants linked to Osama bin Laden, police said.
The arrests of a Moroccan and a Tunisian in Milan bring to five the number of suspected militants seized in Italy since the September 11th attacks on the United States.
The morning arrests near Milan's Islamic cultural institute stemmed from an investigation, begun before the attacks on the United States, into the trafficking of arms, explosives and chemicals, police told Reuters.
The United States has said the cultural institute is the main European logistics base for bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. Muslim leaders in Italy deny this. In April, Italian police seized five suspected militants in a dawn raid that authorities said had smashed the nerve centre of an Islamic group intent on carrying out attacks across Europe and directly linked to Afghan training camps.