'Dark web'
Thursday's raids saw suspected leaders and members of RawtiShax arrested in Italy, Norway and the UK, and premises searched in Germany, Finland and Switzerland.
Gen Giuseppe Governale of the Italian Carabinieri's Special Operations Group, which launched the investigation, told journalists in Rome that the operation constituted "the most important police operation in Europe in the last 20 years".
It had "dismantled an integrated cell" that had developed "on the 'dark web', little-known [internet] platforms that we have managed to penetrate", he said.
The cell, the general alleged, "was about to continue sending many other jihadists abroad; it was about to carry out attacks, including suicide bombings, to try to free their chief, Mullah Krekar".