The FBI in Washington said the Canadian suspects may have had ``limited contact'' with two men recently arrested on terrorism charges in Georgia.
``These individuals were allegedly intent on committing acts of terrorism against their own country and their own people,'' Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement. ``As we have said on many occasions, Canada is not immune to the threat of terrorism.''
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they had arrested 12 male adults and five youths on terrorism charges, including plotting attacks with explosives on Canadian targets. The suspects were either citizens or residents of Canada and had trained together, they said.
``This group took steps to acquire three tons of ammonium nitrate and other components necessary to create explosive devices,'' said assistant Royal Canadian Mounted Police commissioner Mike McDonell. ``This group posed a real and serious threat. It had the capacity and intent to carry out these attacks.''
He noted that this was three times the amount used to blow up the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The April 19, 1995, attack killed 168 people and injured more than 800.
``The men arrested yesterday are Canadian residents from a variety of backgrounds. For various reasons, they appeared to have become adherents of a violent ideology inspired by al-Qaida,'' said Luc Portelance, assistant director of operations with CSIS Canada's spy agency. However, he said investigators had yet to make any link to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.
The men were due to appear later Saturday in a Toronto area courthouse, which was under heavy security with snipers on the roof and armed officers surrounding the building.
Spectators were required to remove their shoes as they went through a series of three checkpoints by tactical officers carrying M16 assault rifles and MP5 submachine guns and who were aided by bomb-sniffing dogs.
FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko in Washington, D.C., said there may have been a connection between the Canadian men and a Georgia Tech student and another American who had traveled to Canada to meet with Islamic extremists to discuss suitable locations for a terrorist strike.
Syed Haris Ahmed of Dawsonville and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee of Roswell, both U.S. citizens who grew up in the Atlanta area, were arrested in March.
``The FBI is aware of the ongoing law enforcement activity in Canada,'' Kolko said. ``There is preliminary indication that some of the Canadian subjects may have had limited contact with the two people recently arrested from Georgia.''
Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said Secretary Michael Chertoff telephoned his counterpart in Canada, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, to discuss the arrests, which would not heighten the Homeland Security daily threat advisory.
Officials at the news conference displayed evidence of bomb making materials including a red cellular phone that was wired up to what appeared to be an explosives detonator inside a black toolbox a computer hard drive, camouflage uniforms and a door riddled by bullet holes.
About 400 regional police and federal agents were involved in the arrests Friday and early Saturday.
The Toronto Star reported Saturday that the men had trained at a camp north of Toronto and had plotted to attack the Canadian spy agency's downtown Toronto office, among other targets in Ontario province. Authorities refused to confirm those reports, but did say that contrary to other reports, Toronto's subway system did not appear to be a target.
The 12 adults live in southern Ontario, or Toronto, Canada's financial capital and largest city. The men from Toronto are Fahim Ahmad, 21, Jahmaal James, 23, Asin Mohamed Durrani, 19, Steven Vikash Chand, alias Abdul Shakur, 25; those from neighboring Mississauga are Zakaria Amara, 20, Asad Ansari, 21, Ahmad Mustafa Ghany, 21, Saad Khalid, 19, Shareef Abdelhaleen, 30, and Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43. Mohammed Dirie, 22, and Yasim Abdi Mohamed, 24, are from Kingston.
The charges came under Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act, which was passed swiftly following the Sept. 11 assaults, particularly after bin-Laden named Canada as one of five so-called Christian nations that should be targeted for terror attacks.
The other four countries, reaffirmed in 2004 by his al-Qaida network, were the United States, Britain, Spain and Australian, all of which have been targeted in terrorist attacks.
The anti-terrorism law permits authorities to brand individuals and organizations as terrorists and the power to make preventive arrests of people suspected of planning attacks.
Portelance said it was the largest counterterrorism operation in Canada since the adoption of the act and said more arrests were possible.
``It is important to know that this operation in no way reflects negatively on any specific community or ethnocultural group in Canada,'' he said. ``Terrorism is a dangerous ideology, and a global phenomenon. As yesterday's arrests demonstrate, Canada is not immune from this ideology.''
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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