Al-Qaeda Suspects Arrested in Foiled Plot to Attack Vatican, Targeting Pope Francis

Ten people were arrested on Friday by the Italian police on suspicion of plotting an attack on the Vatican targeting Pope Francis himself. The police were still on a manhunt for eight others who are also suspected of belonging to an armed group linked to al-Qaeda who had earlier also plotted attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Some of the suspects, who are either Pakistanis or Afghans, were arrested in early morning raids across Italy. Police officers barged into the home of the group's suspected spiritual leader, in the northern city of Bergamo, a police video showed.

Though the 18 suspects were suspected of plotting attacks mainly in their native countries, phone taps made by the Italian police suggested the Vatican was also their target, said Mauro Mura, chief prosecutor of the Sardinian city of Cagliari, where the group is based.

Mura said the group planned an attack on the Vatican in 2010. Although this did not happen, the group continued to operate across Italy after that, he said.

He said the group considered a suicide attack in a crowded place in the Vatican, presumably St. Peter's Square. Italian officials have for years feared such a possible attack by militants and have increased security there.

Mura said the group had a large number of weapons and many followers that were willing to launch terrorist attacks.

In the suspects' conversations tapped by the police, the suspects discuss "a big jihad in Italy," said Mario Carta, head of the police unit on the case. They uttered the word "baba," which could mean the pope, Carta said.

"We don't have proof, we have strong suspicion," that Pope Francis was a possible target, he said at a press conference.

The group, authorities said, supported "armed struggle against the West" and wanted to destabilize the Pakistani government, which is backing U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

The group sent 55,268 euros ($60,160) to Pakistan carried by someone on a flight from Rome to Islamabad.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the alleged attack plots were in the past, and that the new developments were not a matter for concern.

However, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin admitted: "We are all afraid because we don't know what can happen."

Italy, just like other European countries, has been on heightened alert for possible terrorist operations following the January attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

European governments have expressed concern about possible "sleeper" militant cells whose members live normal lives in their countries, adding that they may at some point in the future be activated to launch attacks.