Italy deports Isis-linked woman 'ready to blow herself up in Milan'

Italy has deported a 22-year-old Egyptian woman with alleged links to the Islamic State (Isis) terror group.

The woman, identified as Fatma Ashraf Shawky Famhy, allegedly plotted to carry out an attack in Italy after she failed to travel to Syria to join the militants, local media reported.

The country's General Investigations and Special Operations Division (Digos) monitored online conversations Famhy had with an Isis fighter, Abdallah Hasanayn Al-Najjar, who tried to help her arrange a trip to Turkey and then Syria.

The woman reportedly sent pictures of herself so that she could obtain a fake passport.

However, when she realised that travelling to Syria unnoticed by authorities would be harder than she had thought, she volunteered to carry out an attack in Milan, where she was based.

"I can do something here, I am ready," the woman allegedly told an Isis member through messaging app Telegram.

However the militant told her she could only do something "when you receive our authorisation", Corriere della Sera reported.

Following the investigation, Interior Minister Marco Minniti ordereded her expulsion, news agency.

Famhy, originally from the town of Giza, had a legal permit to reside in Italy, where she had been staying since 2013

She was jobless and did not have a criminal record.

When Isis emerged in 2014, it swept across Iraq and Syria and seized numerous territories and key cities. Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria became the capitals of its self-declared Caliphate.

In its pursuit to expand its dominion, the group called on fellow Muslim men and women around the world to join their fight, leading to thousands of "foreign fighters" travelling to the Middle East and living inside the captured towns and cities under its administration.

The group – which is losing territories and fighters due to multinational offensives in both countries – has also claimed responsibility for several attacks carried out across the West. Some of the attackers pledged allegiance to Isis.