KABUL, July 30: Afghan authorities have arrested a foreigner in connection with a planned bomb attack in Kabul, Foreign Minister Dr Abdullah Abdullah said on Tuesday.
“The person who is responsible or accused has been arrested,” Abdullah said. “He is a foreigner. An investigation is continuing.”
Afghan officials said earlier that they had foiled a car bomb attack aimed at President Hamid Karzai, senior government officials or the Turkish-led International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) and blamed Pakistan groups for the plot.
General Deen Mohammad Jurat, chief of security affairs at the interior ministry, said two Afghan plotters had been arrested and a third had escaped after their explosive-laden car was stopped in the capital on Monday.
But Abdullah and a senior intelligence official said only one person had been detained, a “foreigner”.
The incident will alarm the government, which has been embarrassed by a series of security lapses this year, including the assassinations of two ministers.
President Hamid Karzai has said improving security was vital to attracting foreign investment and to kick-start an economy shattered by years of conflict.
But the vulnerability of the interim government was highlighted by his decision this month to ask the United States to provide special forces for his personal bodyguard detail.
Jurat said the seized car had been packed with hundreds of kilograms of bomb-making material, including explosives and nuts and bolts, although an actual bomb had not been assembled.—Reuters
