Ankara: The special cell of Turkish police have arrested 25 militants alleged to have links with the al-Qaeda Islamic extremist network who were preparing to carry out attacks against a NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) summit in Istanbul, officials and news reports said today (May 3, 2004).

The suspects are alleged to have had ties to the radical Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, which is said to be linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda, they said.

"The organisation has been neutralised in a successful operation whilst in the planning stage," according to sources as quoted by Anatolia news agency.

According to official sources the operation took place on April 29, 2004.

Reports also said the extremists had carried out reconnaissance work with the aim of attacking a synagogue in the Turkish town of Osmangazi and of robbing a bank to self-finance their organisation.

A search at the detainees' residences and offices netted pipe bombs, materials used for making explosives, CDs featuring Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda militants in training and subversive documents, the report said.