Law enforcement authorities have arrested at least 13 people in connection with an ISIS recruiting ring in Europe, and warrants have been issued for four others.
The leader,
Mullah Krekar, is being held in Norway, and the BBC reported that the network members were reportedly attempting to free him. He was born Najm Faraj Ahmad and has been sentenced to jail several times in recent years, most recently after he praised those who killed the staff of the satirical Charlie Hebdo publication.
Six of the suspects were caught in Italy, four in Britain, and three in Norway, the BBC said.
NBC News, however, reported that 16 people were arrested from the warrants issued. They are all accused of international terrorism.
Eurojust, the
European Union's Judicial Cooperation Unit, said in a release that those arrested were leaders and members of Rawti Shax, a terrorist organization of Kurdish-Sunni origin. Raids to arrest the individuals were held simultaneously in Italy, the United Kingdom, Norway, Finland, Germany, and Switzerland.
"The investigations and continuous cooperation have been ongoing for years in Italy as well as in other European countries, particularly Switzerland and Germany, progressively revealing the structure and operations of this terrorist organization," the release said.
Rawti Shax, meaning "new course," is also known as Didi New, which means "towards the mountain." According to Eurojust, the group is listed as a terrorist organization by the United Nations.
"Its primary objective is to violently overthrow the current Iraqi Kurdish government and replace it with a caliphate governed by Sharia law," the European legal group announced.
"According to the Italian investigation, unlike Ansar Al Islam, Rawti Shax arose and is rooted in Europe, with cells communicating and operating via the Internet, with a structure active especially in Germany, Switzerland, the U.K., Finland, Italy, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Iraq, Iran, and Syria. As the group evolved, it became active in providing logistical and financial support to recruiting foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) to be sent to Syria and Iraq, also with the intent of training them for the future conflict in Kurdistan."
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