Turkey Seizes Iranians With Rigged Briefcase

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish authorities detained three Iranians found with a briefcase containing a sophisticated booby-trap device, police said Tuesday.

They said the Iranians--two men and a woman--were seized at Ankara airport on Saturday as they tried to avoid passing the case through an X-ray machine on their way to board a plane to Turkish north Cyprus.

The case did not contain any explosives, but it did contain batteries and electronic circuitry in a hidden compartment ready for connection with a hidden switch on the handle, police said.

Police said the Iranians refused to say where they obtained the case. They said they were going to Cyprus to take university entrance examinations.

Ulku Coskun, Ankara state security court prosecutor, said authorities were seeking a court order to charge the three with forming an armed gang to commit acts of political terrorism and to kill a group of people. Coskun would not elaborate.