NDS: Khalili’s assassination plot foiled in Kabul

KABUL), Afghan spy service, officials on Saturday said three would-be suicide attackers plotting to assassinate the second vice-president were arrested in Kabul.

An NDS official Shafiqullah Tahiri told a press conference that Karim Khalili was the target of the three alleged bombers — who had links with the Haqqani network.

The assassination had been hatched in Pakistan, he said, adding suicide vests, weapons, ammunitions and some explosives were recovered from the detainees shown in a video clip.

They identified themselves as Abdul Khan, a Paktia resident, Noorullah, a resident of Ghazni, currently living in Kohat town of Pakistan and Zabihullah, from central Maidan Wardak province.

The footage revealed the detainees confessed that they were trained by Haqqani  members — Saifullah, Maulvi Mansoor, Shokrullah, Anas and Maulvi Badruddin — at a militant training centre in Miranshah, the main town in north Waziristan near the Afghan border.

They had received training from Arab and Pakistani trainers on how to use weapons and suicide vests.

Their arrests came days after rebels unleashed near simultaneous attacks at three locations in Kabul and other major cities in eastern Nangarhar, central Logar and southeastern Paktia provinces, leaving several people, mostly assailants, dead and wounded.

Officials say 36 attackers, 11 Afghan forces and three civilians were killed and 65 others, including 25 civilians, wounded in the brazen attacks.

frm/ma/vp