Plot to kill British forces chief foiled

Terrorists in Italy may have been plotting to assassinate Britain's head of the armed forces, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, police confirmed.

A newspaper photograph of Sir Michael, the Chief of the Defence Staff and Tony Blair's key war adviser, was among the objects found on Thursday when 28 Pakistanis were arrested during a raid on a Naples apartment. The photograph, in an Urdu-language Pakistani newspaper, had been ringed in ink.

The find has been linked to a visit by the admiral to Nato's southern headquarters in Naples planned for the middle of March.

Among the items discovered in the raid were a British newspaper and maps showing locations in Britain, including a plan of the London Underground.

Maps of Naples were found with strategic targets ringed in ink, including the US consulate, Nato's regional headquarters at Bagnoli on the city's outskirts, and Capodichino Airport, which Nato shares with civilian carriers.

Police also found nearly 2lb of explosive, "enough to destroy a three-storey building", as well as fuses and detonators concealed behind a false wall in the apartment.

A huge number of press releases were also found, according to a marshal in the Carabinieri at Naples, kept in meticulous order, but police were waiting for translators to help them understand their significance. Photos of jihadi martyrs and children cradling Kalashnikovs, piles of false documents and more than 100 mobile phones were among other items found.

Yesterday two investigating magistrates were combing the large and dilapidated three-storey apartment in a historic part of central Naples for further clues.

British embassy sources in Rome confirmed that Sir Michael, who is shortly to retire, is paying a series of "valedictory calls", one of which is expected to bring him to the city.

The admiral himself is said to be unsurprised that he has been singled out as a target. "It is not unreasonable to say that he knows that in his position he is a target for terrorists. That does not stop us taking seriously and dealing with any specific threat," a Ministry of Defence spokesman said.

Sir Michael already has security in place to deal with the potential IRA threat and that from other known terrorist groups. The MoD refused to comment on whether security had been tightened in the wake of the September 2001 terror attacks and the escalating crisis with Iraq, or would be adjusted to deal with this latest threat.

But sources said: "They will look at the information and make security decisions accordingly."

Sir Michael became head of the British armed forces in February 2001, having served in the Navy since 1961.

Over his 42-year military career, the Chief of Defence Staff has become renowned for his controversial views.

At the height of operations in Afghanistan, he described the pursuit of the war on terrorism as "a hi-tech 21st-century posse in the Wild West". And he publicly voiced "extreme concern" about the firefighters' strike on the impact of the Army's operational effectiveness.

But Sir Michael, 59, has won widespread admiration within the services for his handling of Britain's role in the war on terror.

The father of two, married in 1971 to a Royal Navy surgeon's daughter, Harriet, was born in April 1943 in Cape Town, South Africa, and educated at Hurstpierpoint in West Sussex.

In 1965 he qualified as a submariner and began to climb the naval ladder, was knighted in 1994 and promoted to Admiral a year later.

The British authorities, through Interpol, are now being informed of the Italian find and its implications.