Plan for attack on NATO summit foiled, says Turkey

[Turkish]

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The security forces in Turkey say they have foiled a "sensational attack" planned for next month's Nato summit in Istanbul, which is to be attended by President George W. Bush and other western leaders.


At least 16 people were being held last night after a joint operation between the Turkish police and intelligence services. They said those detained were members of Ansar al-Islam, a violent Islamist group that western intelligence services believe is closely linked to al-Qaeda.

A big cache of guns and explosives was uncovered, along with thousands of compact discs allegedly containing training instructions from Osama bin Laden. Those arrested were charged with links to a terrorist organisation and possession of explosives.

"The organisation was planning to make a bomb attack at the Nato summit," said Oguz Kagan Koksal, governor of the province of Bursa. He said the group was also planning to attack a synagogue in the city of Bursa, 240km south of Istanbul.

The people being held were arrested in Bursa. At least eight others were arrested in Istanbul, but were released after appearing before a state security court.

Ansar al-Islam's headquarters in northern Iraq was heavily bombarded by the US early in the Iraq campaign.

US officials have blamed the group for some of the biggest bomb attacks in the country since the end of the war, including that on the UN headquarters in Baghdad and one in Arbil earlier this year that killed more than 100 people, including senior officials from the pro-US Kurdish political parties that control much of northern Iraq.

The Nato summit in Istanbul on June 28-29 will be one of the most important since the start of the Iraq war, and a signal that Turkey has been fully "rehabilitated" by Washington after its bitter disagreement with Ankara during the run-up to the war. After yesterday's arrests Nato said cancelling the summit was out of the question.

European diplomats would not speculate on whether the foiled attack was part of strategy to deprive the coalition forces of extra support from Nato. However, the US - backed by Britain and Poland - is expected to use the summit to press the organisation to play a much bigger role in Iraq.