Afghan, Pakistan men with ISIS links, held in Italy

‘ISIS’ Anbar province chief killed in Iraq air strike’

The police in Italy on Tuesday arrested two Afghan and a Pakistani asylum-seeker with alleged links to the Islamic State terror group and plots to attack Rome and other targets in Europe.

The police in the southeastern port city of Bari arrested 23-year-old Afghan Haim Nasiri on international terrorism charges and his compatriot Gulistan Ahmadzai on charges of aiding illegal immigration.

An unnamed Pakistani suspect was arrested in the northern city of Milan and arrest warrants were issued for two other Afghan asylum-seekers and a Pakistani, the police said.

Three of the suspects are accused of international terrorism and two of aiding illegal immigration, according to the arrest warrants.

All five suspects allegedly belong to an ISIS-linked militant cells accused of planning attacks on Rome’s Colosseum, as well as on other targets in the Italian capital and in Britain, France and Belgium, investigators said.

The cell had been established in Puglia “to carry out violent attacks with the purpose of international terrorism, in Italy and abroad,” the arrest warrant said.

Meanwhile, a top ISIS leader, along with three other jihadists from the terror group, was killed in a US-led military strike, the Pentagon said.

Abu Wahib, the ISIS chief in Iraq’s Anbar province, was killed in a May 6 airstrike, Pentagon Press secretary Peter Cook told reporters at a press conference.