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| Afghanistan | |
| Afghan Forces Arrest Suicide-Bomb Cell | |
| 2009-02-04 | |
| Afghan security forces have arrested a group of Taliban militants they say were behind a series of suicide-bomb strikes in the capital, Kabul, including one outside the German Embassy, an intelligence official has said. The group of 17 men, led by a 23-year-old Pakistani national, had direct links with six suicide attacks in the past two years in various parts of the city, said Said Ansari, a spokesman for the National Security Department. The arrests were made in several parts of the capital last month, days after a suicide car-bomb attack outside the German Embassy that killed four Afghan civilians and one U.S. soldier, Ansari told a news conference.
The group of arrested men had facilitated the attacks, which were organized by a Pakistani militant group and the network of Sirajuddin Haqqani, a senior Taliban commander based in Pakistan's border tribal region, Ansari said. According to the arrested men, all the suicide bombers in the six attacks were Pakistani nationals and had received training in the country's lawless tribal area, Ansari said. Twenty Afghans were killed and more than 120 wounded in the attacks. Asked if Pakistan's ISI intelligence service had any links with the attacks, he replied: "Who arms Haqqani and organizes [him] and where has he established his bases?" | |
| Posted by:Fred |