后面一月份抓捕的说法可以被新浪二月份一篇报道证实

记者们应该很有兴趣才对，奥运会安全问题...

Olympic Games terror attack thwarted

TERRORIST gang targeting the Olympics has been busted and a separate hijacking attempt aboard a flight to Beijing thwarted, Chinese officials say.

Crew members have been credited with stopping an "air disaster" on the China Southern Airlines plane, which was forced to land in Lanzhou.

The flight originated in Urumqi, where it has now claimed a militant gang targeting the Olympics was brought down in January.

Homemade grenades

Two militants were killed and 15 arrested in the January 27 raid in the capital of China's Muslim-dominated Xinjiang region, a high-level official said overnight.

Five police officers were wounded in the raid when three homemade grenades were thrown at them.

"Obviously, the gang had planned an attack targeting the Olympics,'' said Wang Lequan, Xinjiang's Communist Party chief, linking the raid for the first time to the August 8-24 Games being held in Beijing.

China's police chief had warned last year that terrorism posed the biggest threat to the Beijing Olympics, but this is believed to be the first time the authorities have reported a specific threat against the event.

Motives questioned

Rights groups have consistently accused Chinese authorities of repression in Xinjiang, with some saying Beijing uses the "war on terror'' as a cover to brutally silence anyone who expresses opposition to, or anger with, Chinese rule in the strategically vital region.

Chinese news agency Xinhua said the gang had collaborated with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), an obscure grouping that is listed by the United Nations as an international terrorist group.

"The Olympic Games slated for this August is a big event, but there are always a few people who conspire to commit sabotage. It is no longer a secret now,'' said Mr Wang.

"Those terrorists, saboteurs and secessionists are to be battered resolutely, no matter what ethnic group they are from."

He said authorities would adopt a strike-first policy against the "three evil forces'' of terrorists, separatists and extremists in the region.

"We are prepared to strike them whenever they are found planning their activities.''

Plane drama

Meanwhile, Nur Bekri, chairman of the Xinjiang regional government, told reporters about what appeared to be a planned hijacking.

He said the China Southern Airlines plane from Urumqi was forced to land in Lanzhou, the capital of neighbouring Gansu province, because "some people were attempting to create an air disaster''.

The crew stopped the would-be attackers and all passengers and crew were safe, he added. The plane arrived in Beijing at the weekend.

Mr Nur did not elaborate, saying only that authorities were investigating "who the attackers are, where they are from and what's their background''.

"But we can be sure that this was a case intending to create an air crash.''

An official with the Xinjiang regional government said the suspects were in custody in Lanzhou but did not reveal how many there were.