Philippine security forces have arrested four suspected militants and seized a large amount of explosives, foiling a plan to bomb civilian targets in the capital Manila, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said
today.
"We have pre-empted a Madrid-level attack on the metropolis by capturing an explosive cache of 80 pounds of TNT which was intended to be used for bombing malls and trains in Metro Manila," she said on national television.
Ms Arroyo, a supporter of the US war on terror, said the four had been arrested in two raids in Manila and included at least one suspected member of the Abu Sayyaf Islamic militant group blamed for kidnappings in recent years.
A southeast Asian Islamic militant group, Jemaah Islamiah, has been blamed for a series of bomb blasts in Manila, including one on a train in December 2000.
Ms Arroyo's announcement of the plot comes three weeks after bombs exploded in four Madrid commuter trains, killing 190 people in an attack blamed on militants linked to al-Qaeda.