MILAN, Italy, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Italian police have arrested three men in connection with a bombing of an army barracks in Milan.
Libyan national Mohamed Game was arrested on the scene of the crime after he detonated a makeshift bomb near an army barracks Monday. Game reportedly approached the barracks to place the explosive device but detonated it earlier when security guards confronted him.
In the hours ensuing, police arrested two more suspects, a Libyan and an Egyptian, in connection with the bombing. Authorities said the other two suspects were in possession of large quantities of explosives similar to the material used by Game.
Italian media reports claim that Game has lost an arm and both eyes in what appears to be an attempted suicide bombing. A Carabinieri was admitted into hospital with slight injuries but has since been released, officials say.
Game, a 35-year-old Libyan immigrant, arrived in Italy in 2003 and is married to an Italian woman, news agency Ansa reports. He was a regular visitor to a mosque in downtown Milan but never raised suspicion of being an extremist, the mosque's President Abdel Hamid Shaari said.
"He dresses like a Westerner, with a very short beard. If we had suspected anything we would have told the police," he told Ansa news agency.
But Italian newspapers say Game became increasingly opposed to Italy's military contribution in Afghanistan after he failed to succeed in the restaurant business.
Game's target, the Santa Barbara barracks, houses units currently serving with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. Italy has 3,100 troops in the country.
Italian security officials are now probing whether the incident was an isolated attack or part of a larger plan to hit targets in the country.
"It is a serious and worrying act that should neither be underestimated nor exaggerated," Apcom news agency quoted Alfredo Mantovano, an Interior Ministry official as saying.
The bombing comes as Italian backing for the Afghanistan mission is falling.
After a suicide attack that killed six Italian paratroopers and wounded four others in Kabul last month, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he was anxious to bring Italian troops home "as soon as possible."
