Italy arrests five on terror charges

BOLOGNA, Italy, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Italian police in Bologna say they have arrested five North Africans on charges of conspiring to commit acts of terrorism.

Four Tunisians and a Moroccan were arrested with a sixth man still being sought in an alleged international terrorist ring recruiting suicide bombers for Iraq and Afghanistan war zones, reported BBC News Saturday.

Italian police raided houses and apartments in Bologna and Ravenna on Italy's Adriatic coast, and Como, near Milan, where they allege the North Africans organized fraud operations to finance terrorism. They are alleged to have collected money from phony car accident insurance claims.

Investigators reportedly gathered information on the activities of the terrorist group through phone taps. Reportedly the alleged leader of the terrorist ring was a former mujaheddin colonel who fought in Bosnia during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.