Some 12,000 people are signed up
to the "The State of the Islamic Caliphate" jihadist channel on
the high-tech application Zello, an investigation by the
anti-terrorism squad of the Carabinieri police in collaboration
with the FBI has found.
Mouner El-Aoual, a 29-year-old Moroccan recently arrested in
Turin on charges of terrorism, was a frequent user of the
application.
Zello can transform iPhones, iPads, Android devices,
Blackberries, PCs or Windows mobile device into walkie-talkies
and uses a small bandwidth and minimal battery power, making it
ideal for remote locations.
Members of the channel exchange information and news on the
Islamic State (IS) and "take part in the radicalization
process", according to the investigation.
El-Aoual was intercepted by the FBI around February 25, 2016
when he was telling a contact that, if IS were to tell him to
carry out an attack in Italy, he would need three men who - due
to the material he had at his disposal - could "have the power
of 15 people".
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