Italy has arrested four immigrants on suspicion of recruiting Islamic militants to carry out suicide attacks in Iraq, judicial sources said today.
The four north Africans were all arrested in the financial capital Milan and are expected to be charged with "subversive association aimed at international terrorism".
Italian authorities have issued five arrest warrants, the sources said, and police are still searching for the missing person.
One of the warrants was for a man identified as an Algerian in his 30s arrested by German police this summer in connection with bomb attacks in Spain. Sources could not say whether he was one of the four taken into custody today.
It is not the first time Italy has swooped on people believed to be recruiting for suicide attacks.
In April, Italian authorities said dozens of Islamic extremists were being approached in Italy and Germany and sent to training camps in Syria before going to northern Iraq to join a group with links to al-Qaeda. They made seven arrests.
The sources said this time investigators had also identified a training camp in Turkey which was receiving recruits from Italy but stressed they had not found anything linking the suspects to the recent bombings in Istanbul.