Italian police arrested a Syrian man in northwest Italy Wednesday on suspicion of international terrorism. The jobless 23-year-old was allegedly planning to travel to Syria to join Islamist rebels, police said.
Italian anti-terrorism police arrested the Syrian at his parents' home in the city of Varese and carried out searches there of five people and their possessions including computers during the raid.
Counter-terror police also searched other unspecified locations in Varese, located in the Lombardy region and in the northwest port city of Genoa in the Liguria region.
Police said they were investigating the Syrian's relationship with other foreigners in the Genoa area and whether they were seeking to recruit fighters.
There was no evidence that attacks in Italy were being planned, according to police.
The Syrian intended to return home to join the al-Nusra Front rebel group, according to investigators.
Al-Nusra Front last week severed its ties with international terror network al-Qaeda and re-named itself Jabhat Fatah al-Sham.
The group emerged at the start of the Syrian conflict and is an enemy of the Islamic State jihadist group although both were excluded from a United States and Russian-backed ceasefire this year.
Italy expelled a 26-year-old Pakistani accused of supporting IS who was planning to travel to Syria to wage Jihad, interior minister Angelino Alfano said on Tuesday.
An unnamed 20-year-old Syrian migrant was arrested in Sicily in December last year after police found pro-IS text messages, photos and videos on his mobile phone.
Some 100 terrorism suspects have been expelled from Italy since the beginning of last year, according to Alfano.
