ISIS 'preparing attacks in Italy'- US

(ANSA) - Rome, April 26 - ISIS has sleeper cells that are preparing terrorist attacks in Italy, Germany and Britain, not just in France and Belgium, James Clapper, the United States director of national intelligence, told reporters at an encounter organised on Monday by the Christian Science Monitor. Clapper said the United States was calling for more sharing of information between intelligence agencies as a result and warned that ISIS was exploiting the crisis linked to the arrival of waves of asylum seekers in Europe.
    He said there was a "conflict" between EU rules on free movement of people and goods and on privacy and nation states' responsibility to "protect frontiers and the security of their people". According to the New York Times, when asked if ISIS was conducting secret operations in Italy, Germany and Britain, Clapper said: "yes, it has done. And, naturally, this worries us and our European allies. We continue to see plots by ISIS in the countries that you have mentioned".
    However, Italian intelligence sources told ANSA on Tuesday that there is no new terror alarm or concrete indicators that ISIS is planning attacks in Italy when asked about Clapper's comments.
    The sources said that Italy was, nevertheless, highly exposed to the risk of attacks, in part because it is the home of the Vatican.