Police in Italy have arrested 18 suspects across seven provinces for allegedly joining AlQaeda, ABC news reported on Friday.

Anti-terrorism police in Sardinia said some of the suspects were responsible for "numerous bloody acts of terrorism in Pakistan," including the October 2009 explosion in a market in Peshawar in which more than 100 people died.

Telephone wiretaps indicated that two of the suspects were part of a network of people who protected bin Laden in Pakistan, a police statement said.

The group had "an abundant amount of weapons and numerous faithful willing to carry out acts of terrorism in Pakistan and Afghanistan before returning to Italy," police said in one of a series of statements.