KABUL: Authorities have arrested eight people, including one in Saudi Arabia, in connection with this week’s deadly attack on a guesthouse used by United Nations employees, the Afghan intelligence chief said on Saturday. He said those arrested claimed the assailants came from Swat Valley in Pakistan.

Amrullah Saleh also told reporters that Afghan intelligence had advance information that a Taliban attack in Kabul was in the works and expected during rush hour. Instead, the attackers struck just before dawn on Wednesday, killing eight people — five of them UN foreign staffers. The three assailants also died.

Mr Saleh said the eight men taken into custody in connection with the assault included an imam of a mosque who provided a hideout for the assailants.

He said Afghan authorities had no evidence that the assailants were from Pakistan apart from statements made by the detainees.

Mr Saleh said the guesthouse attack was directed by an Al Qaeda operative known as Ajmal who fled to Waziristan in Pakistan. ‘All three bombers were from the Swat Valley,’ he said.

According to Mr Saleh, the imam, Qari Aminullah, also runs a religious school in west Kabul. He was picked up by the Saudi police at the airport in Jeddah, he said.

‘We were aware of the attack in Kabul city one week before,’ Mr Saleh said. ‘Based on our information (we) were able to prevent a part of the attack, by arresting some of their men and disrupting their plans.’

The intelligence reports had suggested the attack would take place either after 7am or around 3pm, so police beefed up checkpoints and security during those times but not overnight, Mr Saleh said.

The militants ‘used this opportunity and started their attack sooner than that time,’ he said. — Agencies