Togo Says It Foiled Plot on U.S. Embassy

The Togolese government said Monday that it has thwarted a plot by leftist extremists to blow up the U.S. Embassy in the tiny West African nation using explosives believed to have been supplied by the Libyan Embassy in neighboring Benin.

The Interior Ministry told reporters that nine people were arrested July 23 for planning the attacks. It said two briefcases containing plastic explosives, a grenade and a pistol were seized, but it did not give details as to where they were found.

Interior Ministry officials said the suspects confessed to having planned to blow up the embassy and an open-air market in the center of Lome using the explosives smuggled from Benin, a radical Marxist state with close ties to Libya. Togo has not formally protested to Libya because it is not totally certain of Tripoli’s involvement, the officials said.