Afghans, peacekeepers foil plots to attack Kabul

Afghan police have this month arrested 58 militants suspected of plotting attacks in the capital Kabul, the most arrests in one month since the fall of the Taliban. In the latest raid yesterday, two rockets were found and 16 men were arrested about 15 kilometres north of Kabul. They were suspected of plotting to smuggle weapons into the heavily guarded capital, international peacekeepers said.

"Certainly we have seen an increase in the number of people being detained, weapons caches found, here in the city," said Commander Chris Henderson, a spokesman for Nato-led peacekeepers who took part in the raids.

Kabul, where 6,500 Nato-led international peacekeepers are concentrated, has been relatively free of large-scale violence since late January when a British soldier was killed and three were wounded in a suicide bombing.

But Nato's commander in Afghanistan, Lieutenant-General Rick Hillier, said this week the militants have opened a new front in Kabul after launching a spring offensive in the south and east. Many of those arrested had specific city targets, he said.

On Sunday, 48 new Chinese-made rockets were found southwest of Kabul. A week ago, 17 suspected members of a militant cell were arrested, including one with explosives, detonators and a power source hidden in his vest.

US officials say they expect more unrest ahead of September elections, which were already delayed from June, and Washington this week urged its Nato allies which do not have troops in Iraq to strengthen the Afghan peacekeeping force.

The latest violence is centred in southern Kandahar province where the Taliban killed a pro-government clerical council member late on Tuesday, a local official said, following the killing of two aid workers in Kandahar this week.

The attacks forced the United Nations to temporarily suspend voter registration in Kandahar, and US military officials said militants were now focused on softer targets such as remote police posts and politicians.

The US military announced a new airstrip had been built in restive Paktika province on the Pakistan border "to re-position forces quickly throughout the region" and assist in the hunt by 15,500 US-led foreign troops for al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

One militant with suspected links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network was among the 58 arrested in Kabul, Comm. Henderson said. He was one of two senior members of former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-i-Islami faction, Comm. Henderson added.

He said he did not know their nationalities. Hezb-i-Islami has been blamed for several attacks on peacekeepers in Kabul and on US-led troops hunting for al Qaeda fighters and the ousted Taliban.

Comm. Henderson said there was "a likelihood" remnants of the Taliban were also among the arrested. The Taliban, overthrown by US-led troops in an offensive in late 2001, has declared a holy war against local and international aid workers, President Hamid Karzai's government and foreign troops in Afghanistan.

More than 650 people have been killed in attacks, mostly in the volatile south and east, since August, the bloodiest few months in Afghanistan since the Taliban's collapse.