Afghan, US forces arrest more than 20 suspected militants

KABUL – Afghan police arrested nine people accused of arranging suicide bombings, and separately detained 12 Taliban militants for allegedly planning attacks west of Kabul, officials said.

The US military also said American and Afghan soldiers arrested eight suspected terrorists belonging to the radical Hezb-e-Islami group of Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden. The arrests come amid the deadliest spike in militant violence across Afghanistan since US-led forces toppled the hard-line Taliban regime after the September 11 2001 attacks for harbouring bin Laden.A US-led coalition soldier was also killed and another injured when their Huvmee rolled over Monday in Kunar province’s Asadabad district, a coalition statement said.The nine were detained Friday in the eastern Logar province and transferred to Kabul for allegedly helping Afghan and Pakistani militants prepare for suicide attacks, said Taj Uddin, spokesman for Afghanistan’s counter terrorism department.”We have reports that four suicide bombers were aided by this group and coming from Logar,” said Uddin.He had no details on whether the group was linked to a Friday suicide bombing in Kabul that killed at least 16 people, including two US soldiers.Logar province tribesmen rejected the claim that the detainees, including a teenager and an elderly man, were part of a militant cell.”They had a dispute with a man in their village, who accused them of being involved with suicide bombings,” said Haji Alkum, who travelled from Logar to Kabul to try ensure their release.”They were shepherds, not terrorists.”Police also confiscated several Iranian, Chinese and Russian-made weapons, including machine guns, bomb-making material and thousands of rounds of ammunition from a house in the province allegedly linked to the nine, Uddin said.Separately in Wardak province, west of Kabul, police surrounded a fortified compound and arrested 12 Taliban after they finished a meeting, said provincial police chief Gen.Mahboobullah Amiri.AK-47 assault rifles, anti-tank mines, rocket-propelled grenade rounds, mortars and thousands of bullets were also confiscated, Amiri said.US and Afghan soldiers also arrested two men suspected of being midlevel commanders of the Hezb-e-Islami militant group in the Khost province area of Gorcak, the coalition said in a statement.One of the men was a suspected bomb-making expert who was allegedly linked to attacks in the Shembawot Bazaar village in Gurbuz district, a May bombing of an Afghan army checkpoint in Khulbesat and the July murder of an Afghan army lieutenant colonel.Nampa-APThe arrests come amid the deadliest spike in militant violence across Afghanistan since US-led forces toppled the hard-line Taliban regime after the September 11 2001 attacks for harbouring bin Laden.A US-led coalition soldier was also killed and another injured when their Huvmee rolled over Monday in Kunar province’s Asadabad district, a coalition statement said.The nine were detained Friday in the eastern Logar province and transferred to Kabul for allegedly helping Afghan and Pakistani militants prepare for suicide attacks, said Taj Uddin, spokesman for Afghanistan’s counter terrorism department.”We have reports that four suicide bombers were aided by this group and coming from Logar,” said Uddin.He had no details on whether the group was linked to a Friday suicide bombing in Kabul that killed at least 16 people, including two US soldiers.Logar province tribesmen rejected the claim that the detainees, including a teenager and an elderly man, were part of a militant cell.”They had a dispute with a man in their village, who accused them of being involved with suicide bombings,” said Haji Alkum, who travelled from Logar to Kabul to try ensure their release.”They were shepherds, not terrorists.”Police also confiscated several Iranian, Chinese and Russian-made weapons, including machine guns, bomb-making material and thousands of rounds of ammunition from a house in the province allegedly linked to the nine, Uddin said.Separately in Wardak province, west of Kabul, police surrounded a fortified compound and arrested 12 Taliban after they finished a meeting, said provincial police chief Gen.Mahboobullah Amiri.AK-47 assault rifles, anti-tank mines, rocket-propelled grenade rounds, mortars and thousands of bullets were also confiscated, Amiri said.US and Afghan soldiers also arrested two men suspected of being midlevel commanders of the Hezb-e-Islami militant group in the Khost province area of Gorcak, the coalition said in a statement.One of the men was a suspected bomb-making expert who was allegedly linked to attacks in the Shembawot Bazaar village in Gurbuz district, a May bombing of an Afghan army checkpoint in Khulbesat and the July murder of an Afghan army lieutenant colonel.Nampa-AP