Three men suspected of participating in preparations for a terrorist attack were arrested in Norway on Thursday.
The men have been in close contact with key members of al-Qaeda said the head of the Norwegian Police Security Services, Janne Kristiansen, at a press conference in Oslo on Thursday.
Norwegian police, who had been monitoring the suspects, said they moved in to make the arrests after learning that "international media" had gotten wind of the investigation.
All three suspects arrived in Norway as asylum seekers. The man identified by police as the leader of the group, according to Aftenposten, is a 39-year-old Uyghur from China. He arrived in Norway in 1999 as a refugee and obtained Norwegian citizenship in 2007.
The other two men are from Uzbekistan and Iraq.
