Last Thursday Italian police thwarted an alleged plot by Moroccan nationals to attack the Vatican and the Israeli embassy in Rome. Four people were arrested. Three men and three women, one an Italian, escaped to Iraq and Syria. The transcript of a wire-tapped phone conversation between three of the suspects indicated their link with Islamic State. They discussed possible attacks on the Vatican and the Israeli embassy in Rome. After the attacks in France and Belgium, Italy and neighbouring countries have tightened security resulting in the arrest of people suspected of having a predisposition towards IS ideology or planning assaults. Last month police detained a 22-year-old Somali asylum-seeker working as an imam, suspected of planning an attack in Rome. One line of the transcript read as ‘I swear I will be the first to attack them in this Italy of crusaders, I swear I'll attack it in the Vatican, God willing.’