By: Patrick Quinn, Rahim Faiez, Associated Press
04/21/2012 (11:50am)
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan security
forces have arrested five militants with 10,000 kilograms (22,000
pounds) of explosives that they smuggled in from Pakistan to carry out a
massive attack in Kabul, as well as another three suspects allegedly
planning to assassinate the vice president, an official said Saturday.
The reports of new planned attacks in the Afghan
capital came a week after militants said to be part of the
Pakistan-based Haqqani group launched coordinated assaults in the heart
of Kabul and in three other cities.
U.S. officials say they have stepped up pressure on
Islamabad to crack down on the Haqqanis, who specializes in high-profile
strikes against well-protected targets.
Three of the five men arrested with the explosives
were members of the Pakistani Taliban, while the other two belonged to
the Afghan Taliban, National Director for Security spokesman Shafiqullah
Tahiry told reporters. He said the men's orders came from militant
leaders with ties to Pakistani intelligence. He did not say when the
arrests took place, nor what their intended target was.
Tahiry said the seized explosives were packed in 400
bags and hidden under potatoes loaded in a truck with Pakistani license
plates.
The men confessed that they "had planned to carry out a terrorist attack in a key point in Kabul city," Tahiry said.
He provided a DVD showing images of the truck and
the recorded confessions of the men, but did not provide other proof to
back up the claims.
He said that the three Pakistani members of the
group picked up the explosives just outside the Pakistani city of
Peshawar, and were under the orders of two local Taliban leaders named
Noor Afzal and Mohammad Omar, who Tahiry said had ties with the
country's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI.
Tahiry also said that security forces had foiled an
assassination attempt by the Haqqani network against Afghan Vice
President Mohammed Karim Khalili.
He said three Afghan men arrested on April 15, the
day the Kabul attacks began, planned to kill Khalili at his home. They
were equipped with suicide vests and small arms.
According to Tahiry, the order to kill Khalili was
issued in Miram Shah by Haqqani network commander Badruddin Haqqani, the
son of the group's founder, Jalaluddin Haqqani. Last May, the U.S.
designated Badruddin a terrorist.
Afghan officials often blame Pakistan and the ISI
for supporting militant groups — including the Haqqani network — in the
country's lawless areas along the Afghan border. The Pakistani
government has vehemently denied any such claims.
Last Sunday's coordinated assaults included
near-simultaneous attacks in the three parts of the capital and three
other eastern cities. Eight policemen and three civilians were killed in
18 hours of fighting, along with 36 militants, according to Afghan
officials.
On Thursday the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan
Crocker said that there was "no question" that the Haqqani network was
behind that attack and said Pakistan needed to do more to clamp down on
the group's safe havens.
The comments were the strongest yet from a U.S. official blaming that incident on the Haqqani network.
Washington has long demanded that Pakistan target
the Haqqani network. They are seen as more ideologically tied to
al-Qaida than some of the other militant groups, and they have been
particularly adept at sophisticated strikes like the one this week. The
group was also blamed for a similar attack in September in which
militants took over a half-constructed high-rise in the capital and
opened fire on the nearby NATO headquarters and U.S. Embassy with heavy
weapons.
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