Left-wing militants have attempted to bomb the Incirlik airbase in south-east Turkey, according to local media reports.

Police arrested a man and a woman in possession of home-made bombs and hand grenades in Adana near to the Turkish-American base.

Television reports said they were suspected of being members of the illegal Popular Liberation Revolutionary Front, formerly known as Dev-Sol.

Incirlik is home of the Operation Northern Watch which patrols the no-fly zone from which the Iraqi air-force is excluded. It saw intense activity during the recent stand-off between the US and Iraq.

Both F-15 and F-16 fighter planes are based there.

Turkish television quoted a security directorate statement saying the two people detained were "preparing to carry out an act of terrorism on the Incirlik air base and on a police station in Osmaniye."

The statement continued to say the pair had previously been involved in the murder of a guard, an arson and the wounding of a policeman in Adana.

The bombs and grenades were found alongside plans of the Incirlik base and other document in the suspects' homes, it said.

Dev-Sol claimed responsibility for a number of attacks early in the 1990s, including the murder of a former justice minister.
 

Back to top | BBC News Home | BBC Homepage	©