Minniti in Bari after Saturday shooting (4)

(ANSA) - Bari, January 2 - Interior Minister Marco Minniti travelled to Bari on Tuesday to chair a meeting of the committee for order and public safety convened after an ambush in Bitonto involving members of a local crime syndicate on Saturday left an 84-year-old woman dead. Anna Rosa Tarantino died while crossing a road in the town centre.
    20-year-old Giuseppe Casadibari, a convicted criminal, also sustained injuries.
    He is thought by investigators to have been the real target of the attack. According to unconfirmed reports, he used Tarantino as a human shield during the attempted hit.
    Minniti on Tuesday called the woman's slaying "unacceptable".
    "A response is urgent," he said after chairing the public-order meeting.
    Minniti said "we have decided to act on a triple level: "Identifying and arresting the members of the two rival groups; facing in a structured way, with medium-term investigative activity, organised crime in the area; and drafting an extraordinary plan to control the territory".
    Bari Mayor Antonio Decaro said "these cowards struck a symbol".
    "We will react to this vile attack," he told reporters after the meeting with Minniti.
    The shooting is to be seen in the context of a turf war between rival clans for control of the local drugs trade. It may have been a reprisal for an earlier shooting outside the home of a local mobster on the outskirts of the city, investigators say. Tarantino's funeral was due to be celebrated on Tuesday. The Puglia mafia, the Sacra Corona Unita (United Holy Crown, SCU), is the fourth and smallest of Italy's four mafias.