CAIRO — Tunisia says it foiled an Al Qaida plan to attack U.S. military officers in the North African state.   

Tunisian sources said authorities arrested two officers of the Tunisian Air Force on charges of participating in a plot to assassinate visiting U.S. military personnel. They said the U.S. officers arrived for an exercise with the Tunisian Air Force.

"They say police extracted confessions from them under duress," Sami Bin Amar, an attorney for the detained Tunisian suspects, said.

In all, authorities arrested nine Tunisians in the Al Qaida plot on the U.S. military delegation. Neither Tunisia nor the United States confirmed the report.

The two Tunisian officers, both aged 32, were said to have been stationed at an air force base in Benzart north of Tunis. The sources said the officers, expected to be tried in August 2009, were accused of trying to smuggle weapons and explosives from Benzart for the attack on the U.S. military delegation.

Tunisia and the United States have conducted annual exercises for the conventional military and counter-insurgency forces. The North African state was also said to have provided facilities for U.S. air and ground exercises.

Authorities have cracked down on the opposition Islamic movement, elements of which were said to be aligned with Al Qaida. Since 2004, Tunisia has detained more than 1,000 Islamists, including members of the political opposition as well as those accused of recruiting for the Al Qaida war in Iraq.

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