PALERMO - Two men accused of being ISIS militants have been arrested in Sicily's capital, official sources reported on Wednesday.

18-year-old Moroccan Ossama Gafhir was heard colluding with his friend, 25-year-old Palermitan Giuseppe Frittitta, following a police force wiretapping investigation. The two young men have been arrested following the request of the prosecutor’s office of Palermo for acts of incitement to terrorism and self-training to committing such acts.

“The apostates are a disease and they will only have the sword as medicine. The hour of combat has arrived” said Gafhir to Frittitta over the telephone.

His friend from Palermo, according to police wiretapping replied, “There is no question, you put something on you that makes yourself blow up”.

Frittitta, who recently converted to Islam, and Gafhir, an Islamic fundamentalist, planned to go fight with the ISIS army in Syria and Turkey over the next few months.

The Palermitan, who worked in Brescia as a truck driver, had drawn police attention through his social media outlets. He was seen boasting his ‘26-centimetre knife’, growing a long black beard and invoking the killing of “all Westerners” while praising the work of ISIS fighters who died in battle.

The two have been training together for months – getting into shape to fight alongside ISIS militia.

According to the prosecution, the two were purchasing online tutorials to learn assault techniques during war and news on kamikaze actions. The Moroccan is considered to have pressured Frittitta into radicalization.

Both were keen on airsoft, a team shooting sport often considered as a re-enactment of war.

“The two are lone wolves undertaking the jihad without a precise and clear organization but driven and motivated only by the growing hatred towards ‘Kufar’, an Arabic word to indicate the person who does not believe in the Islamic God” reported the prosecutors in the warrant.  

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