TORONTO -- Canadian police foiled a homegrown terrorist attack according to arresting 17 suspects.

TORONTO -- Canadian police foiled a homegrown terrorist attack according to arresting 17 suspects, apparently inspired on al-Qaida, who obtained three times the amount of an explosive ingredient used in the Oklahoma City bombing, officials said Saturday.

The FBI said the Canadian suspects may have had "limited contact" with sum of two units men recently arrested on terrorism charges in Georgia. About 400 regional police and federal agents participated in the arrests Friday and early Saturday.

3 TONS OF AMMONIUM NITRATE

"These individuals were allegedly intent upon committing acts of terrorism against their confess country and their own people" Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement. "As we have said upon many occasions, Canada is not immune to the threat of terrorism."

The Royal Canadian ascended Police arrested 12 adult suspects, 43 to 19 and five suspects younger than 18 forward terrorism charges including plotting attacks with explosives forward Canadian targets. The suspects were either citizens or residents of Canada and had trained together, police said.

'INSPIRED by means of AL-QAIDA'

The arrange acquired three tons of ammonium nitrate -- three times the amount used to pat up the Murrah Federal Building forward April 19, 1995, in Oklahoma City, killing 168 and injuring more than 800 -- said Royal Canadian ariseed Police Assistant Commissioner Mike McDonell.

The fertilizer can be mixed with firing oil or other ingredients to make a bomb

"This dispose posed a real and serious threat," McDonell said. "It had the capacity and intent to carry public these attacks."

Luc Portelance, assistant director of operations with Canada's emissary agency, CSIS, said the suspects "appeared to have become adherents of a violent ideology inspired according to al-Qaida" but that investigators have further to prove a link to the terror network.

Five of the suspects were l in handcuffs Saturday to the Ontario Court of Justice, which was encircleed by snipers and bomb- sniffing dogs. A justice told the men not to communicate with individual another and set their first bail hearing for Tuesday.

Alvin Chand, a brother of suspect Steven Vikash Chand, said outside the courthouse that his brother was innocent and authorities "just want to exhibit to they're doing something."

FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko said in Washington there may have been a connection between the Canadian suspects and a Georgia Tech bookish man and another American who had traveled to Canada to fitting with Islamic extremists to discuss locations for a terrorist strike.

Sy Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, U citizens who grew up in the Atlanta area, were arrested in March.

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