( CNN ) -- In what the interior minister calls one of Spain 's largest operations against al Qaeda , security services said Thursday they arrested three suspected terrorists who might have been plotting attacks on U.S. or British targets . Two of the men were arrested Wednesday and the third Thursday , Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz said . The Interior Ministry said the men were `` ready to act in Spain and Europe . '' One of the men is Turkish , and the other two are believed to be of Russian-Chechen origin . Police sources said they had gathered enough explosives to `` blow up a bus . '' The two men arrested Wednesday were on a bus traveling to France when police detained them , and Diaz said they `` resisted fiercely . '' Police sources said they were stopped in Almuradiel , a town about midway between Madrid and the country 's southern coast . Previously on CNN.com : Spanish ETA terror suspects arrested in London . The third was held in the province of Cadiz on Spain 's southern coast . The investigation is in its early stages , but Spanish security services say the men were most likely plotting to attack the joint U.S.-Spanish naval base at Rota or British interests in Gibraltar , according to Fernando Reinares , a senior international terrorism analyst at The Elcano Royal Institute in Madrid who was briefed by Spanish security services on the investigation . They base their belief on a number of factors : The group 's capabilities ; the proximity of the targets -- Rota is in Cadiz and Gibraltar is adjacent to it ; and the fact that several of the men had mastered flying motorized paragliders , which leads investigators to believe the group may have been plotting to launch an attack from the air . The Turkish man also worked in Gibraltar , Reinares said . According to Reinares , Spanish security services believe the alleged cell might have also been plotting a terrorist attack in France , leading to the two arrests on the bus to France . Security services do n't rule out the possibility they had planned an attack elsewhere in Europe , though no intelligence indicates they were a threat to the London Olympics , Reinares said . Explosives were found in the apartment of one of the suspects in the area of San Roque , just across the border from Gibraltar , and security services believe more explosives were removed from the apartment in the past two days , Reinares said . Spanish police are still searching for explosives in the neighboring town of San Roque , where they suspect the men had stored bombs and documents . Wiretaps indicate that the Turkish citizen 's wife had `` removed evidence from the house '' before the arrest . They are also analyzing the computers and files on a laptop that belonged to one of the arrested men . Read more about al Qaeda on CNN 's Security Clearance blog . One of the Chechen suspects was a `` true specialist in chemicals , '' security services told Reinares . Authorities did not release the men 's names , but a police source gave the Chechen suspects ' initials as A.A.A . and M.A. , and the Turkish suspect 's initials as C.Y . The source said the men were carrying no documentation when they were arrested . Spanish security services suspect the alleged terrorist cell of having ties to the Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba , Reinares told CNN , and they believe one or more of the trio received terrorist training in Afghanistan and Pakistan . The alleged cell was first detected in Spain around a month ago but had been previously tracked by other Western intelligence agencies , according to the Spanish Interior Ministry . Spain 's interior minister said the suspects had information about remote-controlled airplanes , and some of them `` have experience producing explosives and car bombs and training in shooting . '' Reinares said the alleged terrorist cell 's operation was different from other recent terrorist plots in Spain that were the work of `` self-starting , self-radicaling '' Islamist militants . He said Spanish investigators believe this cell was dispatched from overseas to carry out a terrorist attack . Reinares said this was not the first alleged terrorist cell linked to Lashkar-e-Tayyiba to be arrested in Spain . A group linked to a militant with ties to Lashkar-e-Tayyiba who had trained in Kashmir was arrested in Barcelona in 2004 . Indian and Western intelligence officials suspect that Lashkar-e-Tayyiba is responsible for the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks and that it has established closer ties with al Qaeda in recent years . One of its members was David Headley , a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent , who was convicted of helping to plan the Mumbai attacks and plotting to attack a Danish newspaper that had published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed . According to court documents , Lashkar-e-Tayyiba commissioned Headley to research targeting the newspaper , but the group never went through with the plot . A jihadist website associated with al Qaeda posted a request earlier this year asking for `` lone wolves living among the enemy '' who could speak Spanish , a request that Spanish police interpret as a call for suicide bombers . Journalist Javier Ruiz contributed to this report .
NEW : This means the product will ship as received by the manufacturer, sealed, with all advertised components, and with the manufacturer warranty. NEW : They say the men also may have been planning an attack in France . NEW : Police found explosives in the apartment of one of the men . The suspects had information about remote-controlled airplanes , authorities say .