It is now clear the picture of Italian participation in the contrast of ISIS in Libya, together with other countries that have formed a coalition led by the United States, with the consent of the Government agreed national led by the Prime Minister Fayez Al-Sarraj, after having consented to the use of the Sigonella base to take off the armed drones towards the objectives of the Islamic State present also in Libya. The Italian authorities have arranged for the intervention of new amphibious assault teams aboard the warships of the Italian Navy with the aim of capturing suspect vessels in the Mediterranean Sea, for the reason that there may be high risk of infiltration of foreign terrorist fighters of the Islamic State among migrants, which would represent a very reliable picture, for this reason the Italian government has established a unit of the same Navy.
This new unit is capable of approaching a ship or a boat that exhibits not only acts of hostility, but also to arrest armed individuals or release, for example, a merchant ship that is in the hands of pirate groups. In essence, genuine new amphibious assault forces have been established that will have an anti-terrorist structure and that will interact vis-à-vis with the raiders of the Diving and Inshore Command (COMSUBIN), group of the Navy charged with carrying out non-conventional war operations in the aquatic environment and underwater defense. The latter, of course, are followed by the submarines that are used precisely to find the smugglers and terrorist groups linked to the Islamic State.
Il modus operandi of those trying to counter illegal immigration and the so-called human traffickers is truly incredible, in the sense that they intervene in very restricted areas, 24 hours a day, in the middle of the sea, aboard shoddy ships and or in small boats and they know the fear that they may be in danger, behind every hatch and inside the hold a threat. These are very delicate tasks due to the great risk of being on board vessels coming from the Libyan coast where there may be jihadist infiltrators, who fled the now-lost ISIS stronghold in the city of Sirte, entrusted to the soldiers of the 24nd San Marco regiment , which was given the task of applying the hard line against international terrorism.
There are two basic reasons for our country's participation in the struggle against the Islamic State in Libya, so that terrorist groups can be avoided with ships - no matter the size of them - in which there are immigrants and they mix together to then reach the Italian soil: the first reason concerns the high risk of infiltration by Islamic extremists, launched by the Italian secret services and not only, and which can be hidden among the people who migrate to Europe and our country; the second reason is based on the fact that the real possibility of witness attacks on commercial ships and, I would add, even merchant ships carrying weapons outside Libya. Both motivations prompted the Italian authorities - Government and Navy - to create a new military force aboard warships with the task of seeking and capturing suspicious groups hiding under the guise of false migrants. Basically, they are particular tasks such as keeping the stretch of sea under control and seeing what can happen every day, performing searches on civil boats, watching over small or large boats and being ready in case there are uncooperative crews to intervene.
This new unit is supported and guided by U-212 submarines, medium-sized units and considered among the best in the world, still used in the operation Safe Sea - established a few years ago, due to the Libyan crisis which made it necessary to strengthen the Naval Naval Device of the MM deployed in the Central Mediterranean - Strait of Sicily, to protect national interests in the area - exposed to continuous risks determined by the presence of extremist entities - and guarantee adequate levels of maritime safety. Thanks to the evolution of technology, the personnel, who are on board these submarines, can, thanks to the periscope, pick up or identify the smugglers or terrorist subjects that can be armed, who are on the ships or dinghies of migrants or in cargo ships of commercial ships and signal their presence to the assault teams, who will have the task for a swift intervention.
Another important aspect concerns the establishment of named units combat that would accompany the cd inspection teams - the latter have the task of carrying out meticulous checks on every ship that is in transit - with the task of engaging each individual present, who manifests hostile behavior, arriving from the sea on very fast boats or from the sky by helicopters. Therefore, fusilier forces of the Italian Navy were established for boarding and interventions, should there be a concrete hypothesis of the presence of terrorist groups aboard boats.
In conclusion, we could say that these units are formed by the infantry of the San Marco regiment, the cd marines (not forgetting the story of the two infantry Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone whose sentence at the end of August 2018 is awaited by the judges of the sea arbitration; boys who have served their nation with honor and deference in very delicate situations and complex), trained in amphibious combat that have made a perfect course for the constitution of the new department.
Note: some ideas are taken from the piece written by Mariano Alberto Vignali http://www.lastampa.it/2016/08/17/esteri/incursori-e-sottomarini-spia-co...
(Photo: Marina Military)
