US seizes nine in Laos armed coup plot

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) — US police arrested nine people charged with plotting to use rifles and rockets to overthrow the communist government in the southeast Asian nation of Laos, a prosecutor in California said Monday.

The suspects, mostly members of the Hmong ethnic group, were seized after US authorities "interrupted a plot to overthrow the government of Laos by force and violence," the public prosecutor in the state capital Sacramento said in a statement.

The "Hmong insurgency planned to use AK-47 automatic rifles, Stinger missiles, LAW rockets, anti-tank rockets and other arms and munitions to topple (the) Lao government and reduce government buildings in Vientiane to rubble," it said.

Targets allegedly discussed by the plotters included the Royal Palace...