Ansari said the group was linked to Afghan Taliban with bases in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt that borders Afghanistan. - AP (File Photo)

KABUL Afghanistan's intelligence agency said Monday it had arrested a Taliban-linked “terrorist group” responsible for a suicide attack last week in Kabul that killed 18 people including five US soldiers.

The group of seven was wanted for several attacks, including last Tuesday's suicide car bombing on a Nato convoy which killed five US soldiers, a Canadian colonel and a dozen Afghans, the agency said.

The Taliban, which is leading a nearly nine-year insurgency against the Western-backed Kabul government and US-led foreign troops, claimed the attack.

During the past year the group organised about eight bombings that together killed 37 people before their arrest, Sayed Ansari, a spokesman for the National Directorate for Security (NDS), told reporters.

“They were planning further attacks. They would shed more blood of innocent Afghans if they had not been arrested,” Ansari said.

Among the attacks the group had carried out, Ansari said, was a deadly suicide and gun attack on two Kabul guest houses packed with foreigners.

The February 26 raid resulted in the deaths of 16 people, including seven Indians, a French filmmaker and an Italian diplomat.

Ansari said the group was linked to Afghan Taliban with bases in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt that borders Afghanistan.

The Taliban have waged their insurgency since the late 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan threw them out of power.

The rebels use suicide bomb attacks as an effective weapon against heavily armed Afghan and international forces. Kabul sees regular Taliban attacks, mostly suicide car bombings. -AFP