Afghan security forces have detained five insurgents with 10 tonnes of explosives they aimed to use in launching attacks in crowded areas of the capital Kabul, an official said yesterday.
The explosives, hidden in the back of a truck carrying potatoes, were intercepted in Kabul just two days before a coordinated Taliban attack in the capital and surrounding provinces last Sunday left around 50 dead.
“If the explosives had been used, it could have caused large scale bloodshed,” Shafiqullah Tahiri, a spokesman for the Afghan intelligence service, told reporters in Kabul.
Three of those detained are Pakistani nationals and two are Afghans, he said adding that the men had bought the explosives in neighbouring Pakistan.
Kabul was hit by a wave of attacks in three areas last Sunday, with embassies and foreign military bases coming under fire in what the Taliban said was the start of its spring offensive.