Turkish police have reportedly foiled a bomb plot targeting a NATO summit in Istanbul in June which will be attended by US President George W. Bush and other Western leaders.
Police arrested 16 people belonging to a militant Islamist group called Ansar al-Islam. They also seized guns, explosives and 4,000 compact discs featuring training instructions from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, CNN Turk reported.
Ansar al-Islam is a militant group from Kurdish northern Iraq accused by Washington of being an ally of al-Qaeda and a force behind attacks on US troops occupying Iraq.
Turkish police are stepping up security in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city and commercial hub, before the NATO summit on June 28th and 29th, where Iraq will feature on the leaders' agenda.
Istanbul suffered a series of devastating suicide truck bomb attacks in November targeting four British and Jewish sites in which 61 people were killed. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for those attacks.