A 36-year-old Tunisian man was arrested in Paceville early yesterday morning on suspicion of being a member of the terrorist al Qaeda network, police said.
Hamadi Bouyahia's arrest was part of an operation codenamed 'Bazar' in which the Italian police, with the assistance of the FBI, Scotland Yard and the Malaysian police, arrested four other Tunisians in Milan and Naples who were allegedly planning an attack on unspecified targets in Europe, Reuters reported.
Bouyahia was arrested in a raid on a flat at about 1 a.m. after the police were alerted by their Italian counterparts that he may form part of the terrorist network.
The police said he lives in Italy and had been in Malta since September 30, arriving from Tunis.
He allegedly provides false documents to other members of al Qaeda and is involved in other ways, the police said.
They said he was one of seven men who have been arrested or are still to be arrested after the necessary procedures in the Milan courts.
The Italian police have called for his extradition and the Malta police obtained a provisional arrest warrant. Police were questioning the man last night.
They were also questioning 10 other Tunisians, seven men and three women, who were with Bouyahia when he was arrested, in order to establish if they have any connections with him and the purpose of their visit.
Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg preferred not to comment on the case.
Reuters reported that a sixth suspect from Libya is being detained in the UK facing unrelated charges, while a seventh man wanted for questioning, another Tunisian, is still at large.
Italian police recorded phone conversations in which the men arrested in Italy allegedly discussed buying explosives and one referred obliquely to finding "thousands of dead in the subway". It was, however, unclear when they were going to strike, Reuters said.
The men had used terms associated with football to plan their attack, with police recording one them as saying "we are getting ready for the soccer game and we are going to win".
The accusations against the alleged militants include "conspiracy to commit terrorist acts" as well as forging documents and facilitating illegal immigration, Reuters said.
RAI said those arrested in Italy were Nassim Saadi, 28, Said Ben Abdelhakim Cherif, 32, Ben Khalifa Ben Ahmed Rouine Lazher, 27 and Imed Ben Mekki Zarkaoui, 29.
Last month, Italian police, working with US naval intelligence, arrested 15 men believed to be Pakistani members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, which is thought to have masterminded the September 11 attacks on the US.
Also yesterday, the Kuwaiti authorities arrested 16 men, believed to be linked to Al Qaeda.
Notes and documents referring to al Qaeda were found in Sicily last month on board their Romanian-registered vessel, which set sail from Casablanca in mid-July and was scheduled to visit Tunisia, Malta and the Libyan capital Tripoli, Reuters had reported.