Italian police yesterday arrested 10 people and were looking for eight others suspected of belonging to an armed group linked to al-Qaeda who had plotted attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan and, at least at one point, the Vatican.

Some of the suspects, who are all Pakistanis and Afghans, were arrested in early morning raids across Italy. Police burst into the home of the group’s suspected spiritual leader, in the northern city of Bergamo, a video released by them showed.

Though the 18 suspects were plotting attacks mainly in their native countries, phone taps suggest the Vatican was also a target, said Mauro Mura, chief prosecutor of the Sardinian city of Cagliari, where the group had its headquarters.

Mura said officials had indications of a possible plot for an attack against the Vatican in 2010 by members of the group, who had continued to operate across Italy for years after that.

He said there were indications of a plan for a suicide attack in a crowded place. Italian officials have for years feared a possible attack by militants in St Peter’s Square and have increased security there.

In the tapped conversations, the suspects discuss “a big jihad in Italy”, added Mario Carta, head of the police unit on the case. They reference the word “baba”, which could mean the Pope, Carta said.

“We don’t have proof, we have strong suspicion,” that the Holy See was a possible target, he told reporters at a press conference.

Carta told Reuters by telephone that the group in subsequent years “realised that we were watching their movements”.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the hypothetical attacks were in the past and that the new disclosures were not a matter for concern.But Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said: “We are all afraid because we don’t know what can happen.”

Italy, like other European countries, has been on heightened alert for possible terrorist schemes in the wake of the January attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

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