Alleged plot to kill tourists on Rialto Bridge thwarted

ITALIAN police have broken up an alleged jihadist cell in Venice that planned to kill tourists by blowing up the Rialto Bridge and was inspired by last week’s terrorist attack in London.

In a series of overnight raids, antiterrorism police arrested three sus- pects, all of whom were Kosovars living legally in Italy.

Fisnik Bekaj, 24, Dake or Dale Haziraj, 25, and Arjan Babaj, 27, alleged followers of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), were secretly recorded saying they were ready to die for jihad, said police. A fourth person, an unnamed minor also originally from Kos- ovo, was detained. In wiretapped conversations, the suspects appeared to celebrate last week’s terrorism attack in London in which Khalid Masood, 52, a Muslim convert, drove a car into crowds on Westminster Bridge, killing three people and then stabbed policeman Keith Palmer.

One man is heard telling another: “You’ll go straight to paradise because of all the infidels in Venice. Put a bomb on the Rialto.” In another conversation, a man said: “If they let me take the oath[to Allah], I’m ready to die.”

Police had the alleged cell under surveillance for several months.

Spanning the Grand Canal, the Rialto Bridge is visited by millions of tourists each year. Adelchi D’Ippolito, a prosecutor involved in the investigation, described the suspects as “truly dangerous”.

He said: “There was great adherence to the ideology of Isis (Isil) and support for recent attacks, above all the one in London, to which they gave great. appreciation.”