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Subscribe to RSSFive individuals have been arrested and eleven tons of explosives were reported to be found in their possession.
Updated at 8:15 a.m. ET: Afghan security forces on Saturday arrested five insurgents suspected of planning massive attacks on crowded areas of the capital Kabul, an intelligence spokesman said.
S. Sabawoon / EPA
Afghan security official stands guard at the checkpoint on a roadside in Kabul on Saturday.
National Directorate of Security (NDS) spokesman Shafiqullah Tahiri said the five men were seized on Kabul's outskirts with 10,000 kilograms of explosives (11 tons) stuffed in 400 bags and hidden beneath a cargo of potatoes in the back of a Pakistan-registered truck.
The group also planned to assassinate the country's second vice-president Abdul Karim Khalili, the BBC reported.
The BBC's Bilal Sarwary reported on Twitter that a video detailing the insurgents' plan had been found.
"It could have caused large-scale bloodshed," Tahiri told a news conference in Kabul.
"Three Pakistani terrorists and two of their Afghan collaborators who placed the explosives under bags of potatoes in a truck were caught."
Tahiri said the five men confessed to receiving training from Noor Afzal and Mohammad Omar, whom he identified as key commanders of the Pakistani Taliban and Pakistan intelligence.
Video footage released by NDS to media showed the detained men, including the alleged Pakistanis, talking about where they came from while sitting against a blank white wall.
Rahmat Gul / AP
More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.
A Pakistani intelligence official declined comment on the accusations, while Afghan officials were not immediately available to give additional information.
Coordinated assault
The alleged connection to militants in Pakistan will likely step up the pressure on Islamabad, after a recent assault by insurgents on diplomatic and government areas in Kabul and elsewhere put the spotlight on the South Asian nation.
Afghan officials have long accused Pakistan of using insurgent groups like the Afghan Taliban as proxies in Afghanistan.
Pakistan's government denies supporting or giving sanctuary to insurgents on its territory.
Insurgents this week launched a coordinated assault on four provinces, targeting diplomatic and government areas of Kabul with rockets and gunfire in what they said was retaliation for abuses of Afghans by U.S. soldiers.
Kabul fighting ends after 18 hours of intense gunfire
The attacks showed the insurgency's resilience nearly 11 years since the Afghan Taliban were toppled.
The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks and said it planned similar assaults in coming months.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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ive been saying for a long time how us even being over there is the biggest waste of time since vietnam. Islam wants us dead, drop a bomb on them and set them beck a few thousand years and be done with it.
Scatter2: UR a scatterbrained idiot. They will never, ever get here and if they do it will be once or twice or rarely at all. You have foreign terrorists on what is left of your brain. Find something useful to do with your time like get a job or make babies or read books or go to football games etc. etc. The terrorists are over there not over here and if we forget about them they will soon forget about us. You notice that in Iraq they continue to blow each other up. You see. They don't even miss us.
@ BBD you have the nerve to call someone scatterbrained but yet you think there are no terrorists in our country. Wake up nobrains!
The first time the US was in Afganistan was to help Afgans fight against the invading Russian forces. The US CREATED the Taliban to fight the Russians(who were invading for ten years). Now as History has proven the Taliban are terrorists WE created. When will the US Govt. realize every time WE help another country's Civil Wars they turn on the US eventually. FK em all,let them kill each other. Bring OUR sons and daughters home and place them on the N,S,E.W borders where we need to keep illegals and drug smugglers OUT of America.
You got that right! Sgt Joe
Just Curious has no argument so what does she do? Simply attack other, then play the blame game. Rather sad comentary on our teenagers today.
Your ignorance is showing, YOU blame Obama, and suggest using FIFTY HYDROGEN BOMBS to solve the problem...and I am NOT a teenager nor a female....that shows just how ignorant you truly are...
Well, maybe in between. Pardon but you sounded like a teenager that was the product of a failed school system that has not taught our children well. Most folk that attack other rather than stick to a discussion is simply inept. You sound that way.
And you say I'm attacking others? HAH! Hypocrite...it's ignorant people like you (google the word ignorant, because you obviously don't know what it means) that voted STUPID people like Bush into office in the first place...and will probably do the same come the next election....then you can be happy when we're dragged into more wars...
America see's Pakistan as the evil step sister that can do no wrong. Obama can grab his knees/ankles when he bows on his bow to Pakistan. In fact we should have gone into Pakistan first then Afghanistan would have been a piece of cake. The thing is who wants to deal with two billion mad hindus and Indians running around like headless chickens ehhh ! America should be a neutral country without any outside help.
I don't know which America you are talking about, but it's not the one I live in....put a Republican back in the White House and see how long it takes before we go to war with Syria and Iran....I give it 6 months..tops
All you ignorant Obama bashers forget WHO got us INTO these wars in the first place? Fecking idiots...and the Iraq war was just a bunch of b.s. that got us NOTHING but a HUGE debt and made some of the rich Republicans even richer...
10k kilograms is 10 metric tons, not 11 tons. Hookers can infliltrate our ranks from security forces too Presidents, why not use them in Afganistan. I like that suggestion, but Afgans might not be as crazy for hookers as Americans. Our forces take care of that need right after their landing in a foreign country.
Ten metic tons is almost precisely 11 U.S. tons. And, how dare you suggest that virtuous Muslim men would patronize prostitutes. Of course, since there were already some there before any U.S. troops arrived, someone must've ... no ... cannot think like that ... dipleases Allah ...
come on people, there is a little good in everyone. though sometimes it takes a microscope to find it. we have been in afghanistan 10 years. how many years were we in vietnam? frankly i don't see a difference. 10% of the people want to be free. 10% of the people are "hard core" muslims and want a islamic ruled terrorist state. the other 80% don't give a damn. they just want to live their lives. as for Pakistan, how many of you really believe they were ever our friend and wanted to help withthe war on terror? they are more afraid of india then the threat of the Taliban or al-Quaida. and the Indian government is no friend to the US. they only like us because of the wheat and rice we give them.
India seems to be learning that they have more to gain from co-operation with the West and also now have people there who despise Muslims as much as most Hindus do, and in that part of the world, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Also, the Indian students who study in the West seem to more susceptible to become at least partially Westernized in their thinking than do students from Muslim countries, for the most part.
That balogna liberal Obama rhetoric that he wants to save us all will be the end of us all. Bow down to the mesiah and keep up the "save me Obama" crap. Obama has NOOO agenda SOOOO we need a new one..Mr Telepromter...Bring the troops home and watch us pull the plug and watch it all drain out. Ca Plunk !
Why do you call Obama the "meisah"?...first, either learn to spell, or use a spell checker..it's messiah and Teleprompter...
Another ignorant person that will vote Republican and help finish killing off this country...
Do you read these posts a lot? I really don't see semiliteracy or subliteracy as being particularly a characteristic of one side or the other, but rather both.
It's about time! Bring our troops home and let them destroy themselves!
Look this war has done a lot to our country, our men and women. It has even made our presdent call for the murder of 3 US citizen's. We need to look at this one more time and fix it now. Who is suppling them? We need to fight this as if it means the end of the USA not like we are tring to guard our southern boarder to Mexico. We need to close the board with Mexico. In the past countries that were at war with us has used Mexico with or without her knowing to get into the USA.
Just Curious - Not female? Well, maybe in between. Pardon but you sounded like a teenager that was the product of a failed school system that has not taught our children well. Most folk that attack other rather than stick to a discussion is simply inept. You sound that way.
are you just copying and pasting your posts now because you think they are somehow intelligent or prove some point? lol! refer to my response to your exact same statement in post #57.3, k, thanks...idiot...because that is now what I truly believe that you are...
You are OK. We need all types. The very stupid make the intelligent much more apealing. Keep on keeping on, please.
That is right a "failed System " of fanatics trying to tell us all what is wrong with us. The one shoe fits all religion..If we all had the same "God" and philosophies problem solved ..WoW never though of that ..Ehh ! A Marxist utopis is a myth fool. Socialist fool.
MOmaid - - - yu really needa stop talking that "commmon sense" stuff because NONE of our illustrious, smart, highly intelligent voters do NOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT have any CLUE about the truth or common sense uno. AND it'zz yur senator and congressmonkey who izz the bad ones, >>> CAUS mine/ours izz the good ones. THEREFORE WE SHALL just keep on BITCHING about each others people and KEEP'UM in office FOREVER, >>>> being TOO STUPID to vote ALL ____— INCUMBENTS OUT of office, <> remembering now tho, - - - that MINE izz good, but YOURS IZZ BAD, >>> of course!!! Enjoy this GOD-LESS usa, aka: MexiMerica.
I would bet money that these explosives were paid for with American money.
My first thought, this is great maybe the training is working and the Afghan forces will be able to stop the terrorist's, from blowing up more innocent people.
This is positive, a job well done.
Liberal foolishness again predominates these boards. How does a conservative spell potatoe ? Stop looking at yourself in the mirror so much and correct it for me Teach ...Ehh ..It doesn't matter what color a liberal is a liberal is still a liberal no matter what color it is.
the same can be said of a racist....and a "conservative"
Sorry to say it's a war you can't win, if you don't have the majority of the people fighting for their country, you can't win.You are either part of the prolem or part of the solution and if you aren't doing anything to stop the violence you are part of the problem.The people will protest against the people trying to help them if they kill a civilian but the enemy can kill a hundred people and they do nothing!
The "majority" of people's beliefs can mean very little. There was never "majority" support for the American Revolution. There were almost as many "Tories" as there were "Patriots", and a lot of people had no interest in supporting either side. The majority of the German people were not members of the Nazi Party in 1939. At no time in its history were the majority of the people in the former Soviet Union members of the Communist Party. The majority of Afghans probably never supported the Taliban and the majority now don't support the Western powers. War is about "destroying the enemy's will to resist". This does not have to be done militarily alone -- witness the triumph of North Viet Nam over far superior forces, for example. And the majority of people in Vietnam today are not members of the Communist Party. The value of a majority is a modern Western concern that is occassionally helpful, but often more of an illusion.
Big deal, easily replaceable CHEAP fertilizer was all it was, Sodium Nitrate
11 Tons!!!!!!!!!!! That's no small potatoes! GET US OUT NOW++++++++++++
I WONDER why things went so well with Japan, once a warrior culture far FAR more powerful than any Afghan Warlord ever DREAMED of being, now reduced to the church mice of the world. It's called a PROPER EFFORT, not half assed one governed by POLITICS. And so we lose. AGAIN!
Japan was also long united under one true goverment -- a true Empire, if you will. It was also etnically almost monolithic, which helped in its governance. Once it was united under a Western-imposed, pacifistic Constitution (largely written by MacArthur), this took. It was NOT a group of decentralized tribes living in the Middle Ages at the time of its conquest, but rather a modern industrial state, and its fanatacism had been for the state and the name of the Emporer, not whatever the version "Allah" and "Islam" which were being promulgated by the local mullahs.
The alleged connection to militants in Pakistan will likely step up the pressure on Islamabad, after a recent assault by insurgents on diplomatic and government areas in Kabul and elsewhere put the spotlight on the South Asian nation.
Afghan officials have long accused Pakistan of using insurgent groups like the Afghan Taliban as proxies in Afghanistan. // Does it sicken you to think that we send our troops to Afghanistan when it is Pakistan doing this ? Do you ACCEPT the fact we are PUPPETS ?
For putting the focus back on Afghanistan, thank you President Obama!
What focus? its a bureaucratic slow motion cut and run on a timetable last i checked. And Karzai wants to speed it up. I guess he looks forward to getting beheaded. And so we will be back at Square One with the Taliban in charge again, sympathetic to terrorists
Our only interest there is to prevent their fanatacism from affecting us in the West. Keeping those people from living in the past is not worth the sacrifice of our youth.
Another senseless war going nowhere. Of course we are doing nothing there once we leave, Pakistan will be there "STILL" training little squads to cause terror. Pak has nukes soooo toast em... What will we have accomplished ??? NADA >>
Just yesterday there were hundreds of comments made by americans regarding the plane that crashed in Pakistan and most of the people were sympathatic to the pakistanies it turned political so I was one of the very few who was defending our country and what happened on 911 and reminding people who were so sympathatic that they found Bin Laden in Pakistan and that the pakistan goverment lied to the united states and denied for years that Bin Laden was living in there country and they were protecting him so Pakistan can continue recieving billions of dollars from the U.S. we were lied to and we were fooled for years, and now in todays news the pakistans are involved in another massive terrorists plan that could of killed thousands of people so for all the people that were sympathatic and paying there respects yesterday and not being loyal to their own country over here and to the 911 victims who they seemed to to sweep to the side and for the soldiers that are still being killed over there maybe you should feel ashamed for making such comments and defending these terrorists, God Bless America and God Bless the 911 victims I will never forget.
You managed to get that entire rant out in one single sentence! Congratulations!
If you think hating all Pakistanis is being loyal to America, you're full of sh!t. Timothy McVeigh blew up a federal building in Oklahoma. He was American. Do you hate all Americans?
Jesus, you're SUCH a ditz! You're a credit to the teabaggers.
One has to wonder if this was a farce. It seems that the Afghan Security Forces have taken down a militant sect and can be effective on it's own. My thought is as soon as the UN (U.S.A.) Forces pull out, the Security Forces will cut and run to avoid getting their heads cut off.