Afghan intel: President warned of assassination plot
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - April 29, 2008 Meanwhile, a suicide assault killed 18 people, including 11
police, in an eastern province, officials said. Thirty-six people,
including two Australian journalists, were wounded.
Amrullah Saleh told Parliament the plot to kill Karzai was
hatched last month and the gunmen had rented the hotel room they
opened fire from 45 days before the attack.
Karzai and other dignitaries escaped unharmed from Sunday's
assault during a ceremony in Kabul marking Afghanistan's victory
over the Soviet occupation of the country in the 1980s. Three other
people, including a lawmaker, died.
Three of the attackers also were killed in a gunbattle with
security forces after the assault, Karzai's government said, but
the Taliban said three other insurgents got away.
"We had technical information ... that this work would
happen," Saleh told a National Assembly session broadcast live on
national television. "We passed this information to the national
security (adviser) and to the president of Afghanistan."
Despite stringent measures by security services to protect the
event, "the result is that we failed," Saleh said.
An Afghan intelligence official has said about 100 people were
rounded up for questioning after the attack. Some of those
questioned have since been freed, officials say. The official spoke
on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to
the media.
"Tragically, the attackers succeeded in getting close enough to
fire some shots," said a statement issued by U.S. Ambassador
William Wood.
It took authorities two minutes to defeat the attack, Wood said.
Saleh, Defense Minister Abdur Rahim Wardak and Interior Minister
Zarar Ahmad Moqbel were summoned to explain to lawmakers what
happened Sunday.
All three lost no-confidence votes against them by lawmakers on
Tuesday, but not by a high enough margin to press for their ouster.
Daud Sultanzoy, a lawmaker, demanded all three security
officials resign - although there was no immediate sign that would
happen.
Several members of police, the intelligence service and members
of the president's security detail were being questioned for
negligence, while a police officer has been arrested on suspicion
of involvement in the attack, Saleh said.
The attack in the Afghan capital underscored the fragile grip of
Karzai's government in the face of Taliban insurgents.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday said the attack
showed Karzai's administration is under a strong threat.
Afghanistan has "determined enemies who will do anything to
disrupt the democratic progress that the Afghan people have made,"
Rice said.
Sunday's lapse brought questions about the readiness of Karzai's
government to follow up on its demand for Afghan police and the
army to take greater control of security. U.S. and NATO-led troops
provide security in much of the country now.
But the White House said it was unfair to criticize Afghan
security forces because insurgents had been able to stage an
attack.
"When it comes to dealing with terrorists like the Taliban or
al-Qaida, they just have to have even ... a little bit of an impact
for everyone to say that they had a big victory," White House
press secretary Dana Perino said.
The attack was sure to bring a sense of unease in Kabul, which
has been spared the worst of the violence as fighting escalated
between the Taliban and international troops.
In the volatile east of the country, a suicide attack Tuesday
targeting counter-narcotics police killed 18 people, including 11
police, and wounded 36 other people, the Interior Ministry said in
a statement. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
The blast also wounded two Australian journalists, according to
a spokeswoman for Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and
Trade. They were not identified.
The attack occurred in the Khogyani district of Nangahar
province. Abdul Mohammad, a provincial police official, said the
bomb went off in front of the office of the district chief, who was
among those hurt.
Maj. Martin O'Donnell, a spokesman for the NATO-led
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, said
it had troops in the area of the attack, but there were no alliance
casualties.
The militants opened up with small arms fire and
rocket-propelled grenades before a suicide bomber blew himself up
in a crowd that was taking cover, he said.
Violence has intensified since the Islamist militia's ouster
from power in a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, killing a record 8,000
people last year, according to the U.N. More than 1,000 people,
mostly militants, have died in insurgency-related violence so far
this year, according to an Associated Press tally of figures from
Afghan and Western officials.