AFGHANISTAN: Afghan authorities announced yesterday that they had foiled a plot to overthrow the interim leader, Mr Hamid Karzai, with a campaign of bombings and attacks on international peacekeepers.
Kabul's police chief, Gen Deen Mohammad Jurat, said a former prime minister, Mr Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, now head of Hezb-e-Islami, a radical Islamic group that once was supported by the US, was behind the plot.
Several hundred people have been arrested in the last two days."They were planning to carry out destructive activities like bombing places in Kabul and attacking peacekeepers," Gen Jurat said.
He described Mr Hekmatyar as an ally of the Taliban who wanted to bring down Mr Karzai's western-supported government and bring back the Taliban's fundamentalist rule.
Gen Jurat also said the plotters possibly planned to assassinate ex-King Zahir Shah, whose return home from exile in Rome has been expected for several weeks.
They also planned a bombing campaign to disrupt Afghanistan's mid-June Loya Jirga, or grand tribal council, which will decide whether to endorse Mr Karzai's leadership or install a new government.
The present whereabouts of Mr Hekmatyar, who fled to Iran after the Taliban took control in 1996, are unknown.
Iran closed his offices in Tehran earlier this year and there have been reports he is back in Afghanistan. During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the US funnelled hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons through Pakistan to Mr Hekmatyar, including Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. The alleged plot was announced on the day Mr Karzai left for Turkey for discussions about Ankara taking over control of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from Britain.
The multi-national peacekeeping force of nearly 5,000 has patrolled Kabul's streets since the start of the year.
ISAF was not involved in the crackdown but was tipped off that a major security operation was underway and advised to stay away from certain areas, an ISAF spokesman, Lieut-Col Neal Peckham, said.
Meanwhile, coalition forces have come under fresh attack from Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in eastern Afghanistan's Shahi Kot valley, a US military spokesman said yesterday.
The attack in Paktia province on Wednesday came more than two weeks after the end of the US-led Operation Anaconda aimed at crushing terrorist resistance in the rugged region near the Pakistani border.
Capt Steven O'Connor admitted that the attack was evidence that enemy forces were still operating despite the apparent rout last month, in which US commanders claimed hundreds of extremists were killed. "Yesterday the coalition and Afghan forces received several impacts of hostile rocket fire near the Shahi Kot valley," Capt O'Connor said. - (Reuters, AFP)