ITALY FACES TERRORIST THREAT, MARONI SAYS

ITALY FACES TERRORIST THREAT, MARONI SAYS

(ANSA) - Rome, November 6 - Italy is no longer just a base to recruit Islamist terrorists or to finance their operations abroad but is now itself a target of attacks, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said on Friday.

"Up to now, Islamist terrorist cells gathered funds and worked to recruit members to carry out attacks abroad," Maroni told members of the Foreign Press Association in Rome.

The minister said the situation had changed after an attack on a Carabinieri station in Milan last month.

A 34-year-old Libyan resident in Milan blew off his hand while trying to get a rudimentary bomb into the main Milan barracks of the paramilitary Carabinieri corps on October 12.

He detonated the device, which was hidden in a tool case, after guards trained their weapons on him.

"After what happened in Milan, I'm very concerned," said the minister who stressed that the failed attack was a clear indication of how terrorist activity in Italy had taken a new direction.

"We're still not in the type of situation faced by England or Spain which have the phenomenon of home-grown terrorists since we don't have 'Italian' terrorists. But we're coming closer to that".