December 5, 2003	Friday	Shawwal 10, 1424

KABUL, Dec 4: A loud explosion was heard on Thursday evening near the headquarters of the peacekeeping International Security Assistance Force.

The street in front of the ISAF headquarters and nearby US embassy was sealed off by Afghan police.

An Afghan policeman said there had been an explosion near the ISAF headquarters in central Kabul. Police said the cause of the blast was not yet known.

The ISAF headquarters came under rocket attack in March. No one was injured in that attack which wrote off two vehicles.

ISAF troops and Afghan police on Wednesday arrested three suspected terrorists in Kabul.

ISAF said the three were arrested on a road in the direction of the US-led coalition’s Bagram Air Base headquarters north of Kabul.

Hezb-i-Islami is the organization headed by former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whom Washington has declared a wanted terrorist.

Hekmatyar’s Hezb-i-Islami “is a terrorist group, with a history of terrorist atrocities, and represents a threat against the people of Kabul and Afghanistan,” ISAF said.—AFP