<

Bomber Caught Near U.S. Embassy

Would-be assassin arrested with car full of explosives

Tuesday, July 30, 2002
NBC News & Newswire Services



NBC’s Ned Colt in Kabul, The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report

An Afghan policeman keeps vigil in Kabul after an alleged plot to blow up President Hamid Karzai was foiled Tuesday.
Image Credit: Jewel Samad -- AFP.

When the fugitive had to stop at a crowded road checkpoint a half-mile away, the officers rushed the car.



[ ... ]

Afghan authorities had been tipped by information from the International Security Assistance Force and “other organizations” that a foreigner with explosives would be entering Kabul, Barakzai said, and so had deployed special mobile patrols and set up checkpoints.



KABUL, Afghanistan -- Source
A suicide bomber who was captured in a car packed with a half-ton of explosives was just 300 yards from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul when he was stopped by a chance traffic accident, a top Afghan intelligence official said Tuesday. Afghan authorities said the bomb was aimed at President Hamid Karzai, his Cabinet or international peacekeepers, and they blamed Pakistan-backed groups for the plot.

Foreign intelligence information indicated the alleged bomber, who was captured Monday after a car chase through Kabul, is a foreigner and a member of al-Qaida, said Amonullah Barakzai, deputy director of the Afghan intelligence service.

“He was on a suicide mission,” Barakzai said, adding that Afghan authorities were not sure whether his target was the embassy, other foreign installations, or the Afghan leadership, including President Hamid Karzai, whose palace offices are little more than a half-mile from the accident scene.

Gen. Deen Mohammad Jurat, chief of security at the Interior Ministry, told Reuters two Afghan plotters had been arrested and a third had escaped.

But another senior government official said only one person had been arrested, a “foreigner,” which in Afghanistan generally refers to an Arab or Pakistani.

“He speaks so many languages including some dari (Afghan language),” said senior intelligence official Amrullah Salihi. “He could be Arab or Chechen,” Salihi said. “He mentioned Karzai as one of his natural targets. What we have gathered indicates that he is a suicide bomber.”

* Kabul Security Concerns
* Car Doors Drew Attention
* ‘It is an Untidy Place’
* U.S. Denies Cover-Up
(More: MSNBC.com News Source)
2002 © NBC News.

Dan