ROME: European law enforcement authorities say they've broken up a Norway-based Iraqi Kurdish recruitment ring that sent fighters to Iraq and Syria.

Officials have issued arrest warrants for 17 people in a half-dozen European countries and in the Mideast.

Italian authorities said Thursday the ideological leader of the ring was Najmaddin Faraj Ahmad, known as Mullah Krekar, who was already in prison in Norway.

He was sentenced last month to 18 months in jail for praising the slaying of cartoonists at the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which had lampooned Islam and other religions. He was also found guilty of urging others to kill a Kurdish immigrant in Norway.

Carabinieri Gen. Giuseppe Governale said the investigation monitored Internet chats with members of the cell, who were spread out across Britain, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway and Sweden.