>>>ANSA/ Moroccan 'foreign fighter' nabbed in Calabria

(By Denis Greenan).
    (ANSA) - Rome, January 25 - Italian police on Monday arrested a Moroccan 'foreign fighter' near the Calabrian town of Cosenza.
    Hamil Mehdi, a 25-year-old street vendor, denied being a member of ISIS and said he had recently visited Turkey "only to pray".
    But prosecutors said Mehdi has been watching a lot of videos on ISIS and on being a martyr for Islam.
    Interior Minister Angelino Alfano hailed Mehdi's arrest as proof that new laws were effective. "Today a Moroccan was arrested, probed for 'training for activities with terrorist aims, including international ones', a crime introduced with the recent anti-terror decree," he said. "The new anti-terror norms are effective and I'm very proud of that because they reward the work of the police and offer magistrates new tools, fit for the strategies we have to face". The government decree, which has just become law, was framed after the November 13 Paris terror attacks that killed 130 people.
    Cosenza police chief Luigi Liguori said anti-terrorism DIGOS law enforcement agents had been trailing Mehdi since last July, after Turkish authorities blocked him at the Istanbul airport and sent him back to Italy.
    Authorities said Mehdi was in Istanbul attempting to reach Syria to join ISIS.
    Liguori said the investigation was "very tight and across the board, without neglecting any detail".
    Italian authorities said their subsequent investigation revealed Mehdi was planning to move to Belgium, had a "dogged interest for images, films and other propaganda content referring to ISIS", and "a natural propensity" to join the ISIS cause.
    In Luzzi, the Calabrian town where Mehdi and his family have their home, Mayor Manfredo Tedesco said he and local residents are surprised by the arrest.
    "The young Moroccan and his family were perfectly integrated into our community," said Tedesco.
    "Our entire community is truly speechless".
    Mehdi arrived in Luzzi in 2006 with his parents and three younger brothers, all of whom have permanent stay permits.
    Prosecutors also said Mehdi was in contact with known international terror groups. These included ones linked to 26-year-old Moroccan Ayoub El-Khazzani, who in August last year tried to attack a Paris-Amsterdam train with an assault rifle. "The young man had kitted himself up with self-training manuals and videos, and he downloaded a lot of videos about ISIS and martyrdom," prosecutors said at a press conference on the arrest.
    "We're still combing through the evidence, but we can say for certain that he was in telephone contact with terrorists. We know Mehdi wanted to travel to Belgium in September...and that he fought constantly with his family over his growing extremism," prosecutors said.
    For example, Mehdi banned his brother from calling his girlfriend on the phone, and from going to the beach where he might see women in bathing suits.