Three al-Qaida suspects killed in Afghanistan (AP) Updated: 2005-11-17 21:53
Security forces have killed three al-Qaida suspects, a provincial governor
said Thursday, while the country's defense minister warned that militants have
smuggled explosives, weapons and cash into Afghanistan for a resurgent terror
campaign.
People watch the wreckage of a car destroyed
during a suicide attack two days ago as British soldiers patrol the
streets on foot, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday Nov. 16, 2005. Al-Qaida
network has increased its activities in Afghanistan, smuggling in
explosives, high-tech weapons and millions of dollars in cash for a
resurgent terror campaign, the country's defense minister warned Wednesday
as a number of Arabs and other foreigners have entered the country to
launch suicide attacks. [AP]
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Two other suspected militants from Osama bin Laden's terror network have been
arrested during joint Afghan-U.S. military operations in Kunar, a rugged
mountainous eastern province on the border with Pakistan, said Gov. Assadullah
Wafa.
He said the identity of the two, as well as the three killed during air
strikes late Tuesday, was not immediately known.
Asked about the operation in Kunar, U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry
O'Hara said, "Our offensive operations are ongoing and we are constantly going
after the enemy in several areas across Afghanistan." He declined to elaborate.
In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Defense Minister Abdul
Rahim Wardak said intelligence indicates that a number of Arab members of
al-Qaida and other foreigners have entered Afghanistan to launch suicide
attacks.
His comments came after an unprecedented spate of suicide assaults — the
latest on Wednesday when a bomber attacked a U.S. military convoy in the
southern city of Kandahar, killing three civilians.
Wardak said that besides explosives, the weapons smuggled into Afghanistan
include remote-controlled timing devices and other computerized detonators for
bombs. He declined to give a specific amount of smuggled money, but said it was
in the millions of dollars.
"There has been ... more money and more weapons flowing into their hands in
recent months," Wardak said. "We see similarities between the type of attacks
here and in Iraq."
He said al-Qaida militants were increasingly teaming up with local rebels
from the ousted Taliban movement to undermine President Hamid Karzai's
U.S.-backed government because they have realized their influence is waning.
"There is no doubt that there is a connection between Taliban and al-Qaida
and some other fundamentalists," he said. "In most cases, the suicide bombers
are foreigners ... from the Middle East, from neighboring countries. ... It is a
new trend."
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