A man suspected by Milan prosecutors of having ties with the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) organization has been identified in Iraq but not yet detained, State attorneys in Italy's financial capital said Friday.
Moroccan national Ahmed Taskour, 47, a fugitive from Italian justice, was identified following investigations coordinated by the anti-terrorism department of the Milan State Attorney's office, which was led until a few weeks ago by Maurizio Romanelli and is now coordinated by Alberto Nobili, and by prosecutor Enrico Pavone.
Milan magistrates told a press conference Friday that the suspect is a "high-ranking" militant and "an important element of propaganda" for the terror organization.
Milan judge Manuela Scudieri has issued a detention order and a European arrest warrant on international terrorism charges.
Taskour allegedly set out from Lombardy at the end of 2014 with his wife and two children, now aged 11 and 15, to fight with ISIS in Iraq, said prosecutors Pietro Forno and Enrico Pavone and Milan DIGOS anti-terror police chief Claudio Ciccimarra.
In a video filmed right after the November 13 terror attacks in Paris last year, which has also been posted to YouTube, Taskour appears with his then-10-year-old son as they both threaten the West.
The boy "hails jihad" and wishes "death to the West and Westerners" in the video, which features the logo and flag of ISIS and was filmed in Iraq, investigators said.
The duo reportedly spoke in Arabic, with French subtitles, using a number of expressions often heard in such videos to threaten Western targets, like "we will kill you in your homes".
"I congratulate our Muslim brothers and soldiers of the caliphate in France for this blessed operation, which for you, crusaders, is only the beginning - may our soldiers prevail!", the boy also said in the video allegedly filmed right after the multiple attacks in Paris on November 13 in which 130 people were killed.
Before disappearing, the family led an "apparently normal life" in Bresso, near Milan, where the boy was born in 2005.
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