Suspected Al Qaeda Nabbed In Sicily

Italian police, working with U.S. naval intelligence, have arrested 15 Pakistanis they believe to be members of al Qaeda, police officials said on Thursday.

"We are certain that these people are part of a terrorist organization, and we are almost certain that that organization is al Qaeda," Santi Giuffre, chief of police for the Sicilian province of Caltanissetta, told a news conference.

"We have found interesting documents that would prove the accusations," he said.

Giuffre said police had seized telephone numbers, including several in Spain and France, which linked the men to al Qaeda, the group Washington blames for the Sept.11 attacks.

The Pakistani men had also used codenames and codewords in conversations, which raised suspicion of an al Qaeda connection, Giuffre said.

The men were picked up in Caltanissetta, a city in central Sicily, said a local police official, Luca Amico. They are charged with subversive association and association for the aim of international terrorism.

They came to Italy last month aboard a cargo ship which had set sail from Casablanca, Morocco, officials said. The ship was originally headed to Tunisia, Malta and Libya. Officials were investigating what prompted the change of direction.

Aboard the ship, along with the 15 Pakistanis, were seven Romanians, all crew members.

Officials said all the suspects had fake passports.

Inside their ship cabins, police reportedly found a plane ticket from Casablanca to Karachi, a Pakistani city which has become a refuge for al Qaeda and Taliban fighters who fled Afghanistan after the collapse of the Taliban regime. In addition, all 15 had open return air tickets from Karachi to Casablanca.

Notes and documents referring to al Qaeda were also found on the vessel, officials said.

U.S. naval intelligence had gathered evidence on the men and four U.S. Navy personnel attended the news conference but did not answer questions.

Prosecutor Francesco Messineo ruled out the possibility that the men were planning an attack on Italian soil, but said they may have been trying to reach accomplices in the country.

"We can exclude the possibility of a terrorist attack in Italy, but it is possible that they were trying to reach other branches of the network," he told reporters.

Italian police have been on high alert since the attacks on New York and Washington last year and have heightened their watch over the first anniversary.

Over the past year, Italy has been at the forefront of the United States' "war on terrorism," arresting more than 40 suspects and freezing suspect bank accounts.

United States authorities last year said they suspected that a mosque and Islamic center in Milan was the hub of al Qaeda's financial network in Europe, prompting Italian authorities to step up controls.