Suspected militants arrested in Italy
Armed group inspired by Red Brigades
Italian police yesterday arrested two men suspected of belonging to an armed group inspired by the far-left Red Brigades organisation, Italian media reported.
The members of the group calling itself "For Communism - Red Brigades" face charges of terrorist and subversive association and membership of an armed gang, the reports said.
Among those arrested yesterday is 39-year-old Manolo Morlacchi, the son of Pierino Morlacchi, one of the founders of the Red Brigades active during the so-called "Years of Lead" in Italy when they carried out some 15,000 attacks, claiming more than 400 lives.
Another son, Ernesto, was arrested last June along with five other alleged members of the group on suspicion of planning an attack on the Group of Eight summit held in Italy in July.
Yesterday police found a manual on encrypting computer messages and a code of conduct for "revolutionary militants" as they made the new arrests.
The suspects are accused of "trying to reconstitute an organisation similar to the Red Brigades, inspired by Marxism-Leninism, to carry out armed acts," police said.
Anti-terrorist police said in June that the gang did not have a precise attack plan but were discussing how to get close to strategic points at the G8 summit.
The Red Brigades, whose stated aim in the 1970s was to get Italy to withdraw from Nato, are accused of the 1978 murder of Italian former prime minister Aldo Moro.
A "new" Red Brigades linked to a group of communist militants killed two government labour rights consultants in 1999 and 2002.