Two Syrians holding fake passports arrested in Italy

Rome, November 21 :Two Syrians were arrested at Rome’s Ciampino airport for allegedly holding fake passports, the local media reported. The two, aged 18 and 19, on Friday tried to board a plane bound for Malta with Norwegian and French passports, Xinhua reported. The arrests came a day after two other Syrians, found with false passports, were detained at the Orio al Serio airport, close to Bergamo city in northern Italy. Local newspaper L’Eco di Bergamo said the two men, aged 19 and 30, were trying to fly to Malta with Austrian and Norwegian passports. Police reportedly found images related to the IS group in their phones.

The older man said he kept the pictures in memory of his dead brother. The younger one posed with a submachine gun in one of the photos that he said was an image of his cousin.

Security measures have been tightened up at all Italian airports in the wake of last Friday’s terror attacks that killed at least 130 people in Paris. “There is an evidence of the passage in Italy of someone linked to the Paris massacre, but there is no evidence of these people’s activities in Italy,” Rome Prosecutor Giancarlo Capaldo said on Friday. Security measures have been stepped up in Rome and Milan after information of possible attacks were provided by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).(IANS)