Turkey: Officers on trial for 'coup plot'

Nearly 200 Turkish military officers, including three top retired commanders, went on trial yesterday charged with plotting against the government in a case likely to strain ties with the secularist armed forces.

The officers filed into a courtroom near Istanbul to answer accusations over an alleged 2003 conspiracy to destabilise prime minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party government and pave the way for military intervention. "Operation Sledgehammer" included plans to bomb mosques and spark conflict with Greece.