Milan bomber had accomplices, more explosives -police

MILAN, Oct 13 (Reuters) - The Libyan man who tried to bomb a Milan army barracks had suspected accomplices and the group had more explosives ready, police said on Tuesday.

There was no official word on the motive for the attack but newspapers said the 35-year-old failed suicide bomber, Mohammed Game, was an unsuccessful businessman who turned to militant Islam and wanted to force Italy to pull out of Afghanistan.

Police said they had arrested two of Game's suspected accomplices -- an Egyptian and a Libyan -- and found 100 kg of "fertilisers and other materials" used to make explosives at one of their homes.

Game got inside the perimeter of the Santa Barbara barracks early on Monday and detonated his bomb while shouting in Arabic. But an army corporal managed to stop him getting close to the main building and a defect meant the bomb only detonated partly.

"It could have been much worse," said Milan anti-terrorism magistrate Armando Spataro, who was heading the investigation.

The corporal was only slightly hurt while Game lost both eyes in the explosion and later had one arm amputated.

An immigrant with a residence permit who is married to an Italian woman, with four children, Game prayed regularly at Milan's main Jenner Street mosque and had not appeared to be an extremist, said the mosque's president, Abdel Hamid Shaari.

Newspaper reports said that after failing in the restaurant business, Game became increasingly militant and told friends that Italian troops "should not be in Afghanistan any more. Someone has got to make them understand that".

The Santa Barbara barracks is home to signals, artillery and cavalry units currently making up part of Italy's 3,100-strong contribution to NATO's mission in Afghanistan. Italy pulled out of Iraq in 2006.

Security officials have called Monday's attack an "isolated incident" but acknowledge that the barracks had been identified as a potential target for an attack by Islamic militants.

Intelligence reports and arrests show that militant groups linked to al Qaeda, especially in North Africa, are active in Italy, mostly recruiting and financing for attacks planned elsewhere in Europe or to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Political violence in Italy itself in recent years has consisted mostly of small-scale incidents linked to remnants of the leftist Red Brigade guerrillas active in the 1970s and '80s. (Reporting by Sara Rossi and Antonella Ciancio in Milan; Writing by Stephen Brown in Rome; Editing by Dominic Evans)