Italian police have arrested five people accused of taking part in a terrorist association that promoted Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, according to a report in Il Gazzettino. The operation, carried out on Dec. 24, involved arrests and searches in several parts of the country and centred on a group investigators say used internet propaganda to recruit followers.
The newspaper said the organisation was called “Da’wa Italia” and that it involved young people of foreign origin living in Bologna, Milan, Udine and Perugia. Prosecutors allege the group was not just ideological but operationally active, in the sense that some members were ready to travel to territory controlled by jihadist militias in Africa and Syria. One suspect was said to have already left Italy before the cautionary measures were executed.
The case is being handled by prosecutors in Bologna, with support from the national anti-mafia and anti-terrorism apparatus and the carabinieri’s ROS special operations unit. That detail matters because it places the case squarely inside Italy’s broader counterterrorism framework rather than treating it as an isolated criminal episode. The reported charges include terrorism-related association, propaganda and incitement based on racial, ethnic and religious discrimination, and illegal firearm possession.
A central figure in the investigation is described as a young woman of Pakistani origin raised in Bologna, whose activism and recruiting effort allegedly helped form a second circle of sympathisers. She is said to have brought in another young woman of Algerian origin from Spoleto and to have used the Arabic term “Da’wa”, meaning a call or invitation, as the group’s label. The account suggests a network that mixed online radicalisation with personal relationships and family ties.
One of the more concerning parts of the report is the allegation involving the woman’s brother. Investigators apparently suspect that he underwent radicalisation under her influence and was being trained for possible recruitment into jihadist organisations. Another suspect, a young man raised in Milan, is believed to have joined jihadist militias in the Horn of Africa. These are allegations at the investigation stage, not findings of guilt, but they help explain why the operation drew national attention.
The report also says the investigation began in 2023 and intensified during the pandemic, when isolation may have given recruiters more room to spread material online. That is a familiar pattern in modern extremism cases: internet messaging, private channels, family connections and the promise of belonging all combine into a recruitment path that authorities then have to unravel after the fact.
What stands out most from the evidence packet is that Italy’s action was preventive as much as punitive. The arrests and searches were aimed at disrupting a network that investigators believed was moving from propaganda to preparation. The fact that one suspect had already left the country makes the timing more urgent. For now, the report’s key claim is straightforward: the state moved against a suspected neo-jihadist network before it could expand further.
The case is also a reminder that Italian counterterrorism often works through small, networked cells rather than large, centrally directed plots. The report says the investigators saw propaganda, recruitment and travel preparation all in the same group, which is why they moved with arrests and searches at the same time. The public version of the case is not a verdict, but it shows how quickly online radicalisation can become a criminal investigation.
