Italy leading force anti-ISIS-Mattarella

(ANSA) - Rome, July 27 - President Sergio Mattarella said Monday that Italy was a leading force in the battle to stop extremist Islamist group ISIS. "Italy is at the side of the countries that, on the other side of the Mediterranean, are on the front line in the fight against the obscurantism and barbarity," he told a conference of ambassadors at the foreign ministry in Rome, referring to ISIS.
    He added that: "fundamentalist terrorism is a serious phenomenon that should be addressed in the right way, with firmness and determination, while rejecting Islamophobic impulses". Mattarella also said that Italy was doing its utmost to free four Italians taken hostage in Libya this month and Father Paolo Dall'Oglio, an Italian Jesuit priest taken captive in Syria in 2013. "The Italian commitment remains at the maximum level," Mattarella told the conference.