News - Afghanistan

Five insurgents planning a co-ordinated suicide attack in Kabul city were arrested by security forces on Saturday night, a spokesman for Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security said.

"Five insurgents were captured last night about 1:00am in the Shur Bazaar area of Kabul city," NDS spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said. "They wanted to attack the Parliament and President Hamid Karzai [and] Second Vice-President Mohammad Karim Khalili's house."

He added: "Four of them are Afghan nationals and one is a Pakistani national."

The group of insurgents was armed with heavy weapons and suicide vests, AK-47 assault rifles, rocket launchers, hand grenades, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

Isaf confirmed the capture of the would-be attackers. In a statement, Isaf said that an Afghan-led security force, supported by coalition troops, arrested multiple insurgents during an operation in Kabul today.

"The Afghan security force arrested the insurgents as they were finalising plans for an attack in the capital," the statement said.

The arrests come a week after five other insurgents planning a co-ordinated suicide attack at a hotel in the Pul-i-Charkhi area of Kabul city were killed in a pre-dawn gun battle.

Separately, three other insurgents were captured during an Afghan police operation in the Bagrami district east of the capital.