Bomb Plot Against Karzai, Cabinet Ministers
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Karzai remains a potential target |
KABUL,
July 30 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Afghan security forces
have arrested two men apparently linked to Al-Qaeda who were planning
to assassinate President Hamid Karzai or senior cabinet ministers, an
official said Tuesday, July 30.
An
Afghan man and another suspect believed to be foreign were pulled over
in a Toyota Corolla containing semtex explosives in the center of
Kabul on Monday, July 29, said General Din Mohammad Jurat, director of
public security at the interior ministry.
“It
was a program to kill Karzai or one of the key members of the
government like (defense minister Mohammad Qasim) Fahim or someone
else in the cabinet,” Jurat told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
He
said the men were “related to the opposition of Afghanistan”, and
that one of the men was foreign, possibly from Pakistan.
“We
strongly believe that they (the detainees) were related to Al-Qaeda or
Hezb-i-Islami, which is right now an ally of Al-Qaeda.”
Former
Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of the
fundamentalist Hezb-i-Islami party, has been accused of linking up
with Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network in recent months to plot
attacks against Karzai’s government.
The
arrests come a little over three weeks after the assassination of
Afghan Vice-President Haji Abdul Qadir who was killed by two gunmen as
he was being driven away from his ministerial offices in Kabul.
Jurat
would not specify which cabinet minister was the intended target of
the plot, although Radio Afghanistan reported the pair were trying to
kill Karzai.
Jurat
said that the C4 explosives (semtex) were hidden in a door panel.
Wires and nails, which would maximize the impact of any explosion,
were also found.
“They
wanted to park the car close (to their intended target) and then
detonate it with remote control. The way the wires are set up we
understand it was remote control,” he said.
“The
explosives were very well arranged. We asked professionals to
disconnect the wires in the car.”
Karzai
told AFP last week that Al-Qaeda no longer represented a military
threat in Afghanistan but retained a capacity for terrorist attacks.
He
has recently called in U.S. military bodyguards to provide him close
protection amid continuing fears over security.
Civil
aviation minister Abdul Rahman was also assassinated in February. The
killers of both men have yet to be caught.
Around
200 people were arrested in a series of raids in April over an alleged
bomb plot against the government. Officials also accused Hezb-i-Islami
supporters of being behind that plot.
The
International Security Assistance Force, which has been helping Kabul
officials investigate Qadir’s death, warned last week of flaws in
security for senior Afghan ministers.
ISAF
commander Turkish Major General Akin Zorlu said Karzai remained a
potential target for terrorists, although he had no specific
information of threats.
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