Italy arrests 2 Moroccans in terror investigation

MILAN – Italian police say they have arrested two Moroccan residents on suspicion of distributing pro-Islamic State propaganda.

Police on Wednesday said the two men living in the Liguria region bordering France have previous arrests for dealing drugs and other offences. A third Moroccan is under investigation.

The investigation was launched when a young woman reported receiving a photo on WhatsApp showing a woman posing with a machine-gun in position to fire. The photo originated from a number in Morocco that was not in the phone’s address book.

The woman told police she had lent the phone to a Moroccan resident of a refugee home several months earlier. From there, investigators traced a network of “possible activism of the three suspects involving proselytizing for the self-proclaimed Islamic State.”