Turkish police seized nearly 50 pounds of plastic explosives and arrested 12 in connection with what they believe was a bomb plot on the U.S. Embassy in Ankara.
The arrests were part of raids in Istanbul and Tekirdag in February — but were only reported on Friday, United Press International said.
The bomb plot was allegedly the brainchild of an al-Qaeda cell operating in Turkey, police told UPI. The members trained in Afghanistan but hailed from Chechnya, Azerbaijan and Turkey.
In addition to the plastic explosives, police also grabbed 10 firearms and six laptop computers, UPI reported.
Police had alerted U.S. Embassy officials in February about a possible threat, and a travel warning was issued. But no details were given.
On Friday, Turkish officials still declined to comment, UPI said.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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