UNITED STATES: Florida police yesterday detained three men over a suspected plan to attack Miami and closed a major highway to search for explosives sending September 11th nerves jangling again.
With the US on a "high" state of alert for attacks, police sealed off 130 kilometres of Interstate 75, one of Florida's main thoroughfares.
Sniffer dogs and a remote-controlled robot searched two cars on the highway for several hours while the three men were questioned.
One suspect package was detonated.
The government stepped up its attack alert on the eve of the first anniversary of last year's September 11th strikes. There have been a series of scares in airports, universities and city centres in recent days.
The first car was stopped near a toll booth on the highway known as "Alligator Alley" around 1 a.m. local time yesterday. The second vehicle pulled behind shortly after.
Collier County sheriff Don Hunter said the three men had not put up a struggle but noted they were uncooperative in that they "wished not to offer anything up". "We'd certainly like to see them be a little more cooperative," he said.
Mr EJ Picolo of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement stressed that the men have not been charged, declining to reveal their names or nationalities.
Georgia's state Bureau of Investigation issued an advisory on Thursday after Ms Eunice Stone, a waitress in Calhoun, Georgia, told police she had overheard three men of apparent Middle Eastern origin discussing explosives on Wednesday evening.
She said they were speaking of an attack on Miami and saying that Americans "mourned on 9/11, they will mourn again on 9/13", local television reported.
Mr Picolo said the waitress described the men to Georgia police and gave their automobile license plate numbers. Police in turn informed authorities in the neighbouring state of Florida.
The bomb squad detonated a suspicious package found in one of the cars. Miami television stations said police had found triggers for explosives in the vehicles. Mr Picolo emphasised however that police had not discovered any explosives.
The men are being held in a van on the site, Mr Hunter said. Their documents were being checked, and federal Immigration and FBI officials were participating in the inquiry, he said. - (AFP)