Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) personnel supported by Coalition forces thwarted a major terrorist plot in Kabul City late on Saturday night, preventing three suicide-bomb attacks against the Afghan Parliament, the Afghan Presidential palace, and an assassination attempt against Afghan second Vice President Mohammad Karim Khalili. The raid is the second major operation conducted by NDS this month that broke up terror cells linked to the Pakistan-based Haqqani Network.
NDS spokesman Lutfullah Mashal stated during a press conference that four Afghan suspects and a Pakistani national were arrested when the raiding force stormed a compound in the Shur Bazaar area of Kabul City around 1AM local time on Saturday. Security forces seized an arsenal that consisted of suicide vests, AK-47 assault rifles, rocket launchers, hand grenades, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. A Pakistani "Identity card" along with Pakistani currency and a mobile phone with Pakistani phone numbers were also confiscated during the raid, according to Khaama Press.
NDS personnel in the Bagrami district of Kabul arrested three other suspected insurgents, but it was unclear if they were part of the same plot.
Saturday's raid marks the second instance since April that NDS personnel broke up a Pakistani-linked terror plot in Kabul aimed at assassinating Mohammad Karim Khalili, a powerful Hazara figurehead who represents Afghanistan's minority Hazara population, many of whom are Shia Muslims. The NDS broke up a plot on April 15 and arrested three suspects reportedly trained and ordered by senior Haqqani Network commander Badruddin Haqqani to assassinate Khalili in a complex suicide assault.
Saturday's raid also follows the successful NDS raid on August 1 that killed five members of the Pakistan-linked Haqqani Network during a ferocious gunfight against the suspect's safe house located in the Pul-i-Charkhi area of Kabul [see LWJ, Afghan intel kills 5 members of Haqqani Network suicide cell in Kabul]. The operation broke up a plot by the Haqqani cell to take over a high rise building in the Shar-i-Naw area of Kabul. NDS officials also recovered "target maps and telephone numbers" from the compound that had "numbers for the Haqqani Network based outside Afghanistan," Reuters reported.
For previous coverage of NDS operations, see the following Long War Journal and Threat Matrix reports:
- NDS smashes Haqqani Network plots in Kabul, July 31, 2011
- Elite Afghan force destroys insurgent explosives cache, Aug. 22, 2011
- NDS dismantles Kabul Attack Network cell, Aug. 28, 2011
- Afghan NDS continues crackdown on counterfeit uniforms, Sept. 5, 2011
- Afghan intelligence operations take on significant role, Sept. 21, 2011
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