Two arrests made in plot to kill Karzai

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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Authorities have arrested two Afghan government employees for alleged involvement in last week's plot to kill President Hamid Karzai, top officials said today.

But the government maintained that al-Qaeda-linked militants based in neighboring Pakistan masterminded the April 27 attack on a military parade in Kabul. Karzai escaped unharmed but three others were killed.

"Al-Qaeda was involved in the attack. That is very clear from us," intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh told a news conference.

Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak identified one of the arrested government employees by a single name, Jawed, and said he had worked at a Defense Ministry factory repairing weapons. He allegedly provided two AK-47 assault rifles and a machine-gun to the three gunmen.

Wardak identified the second as a police nurse, Zalmay, who was allegedly in contact with one of the key plot leaders.

He declined to give further details about the rank of the two men, but disclosed that the two AK-47s used by the attackers were government-issued weapons. Authorities were still trying to determine where the machine-gun came from, he said.

Despite the two arrests made in Kabul after the attack, intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh again pointed to Afghanistan's neighbor, Pakistan, as the source of the plot.

Saleh said Afghanistan has provided information on the militants' whereabouts to "relevant international sources" who have the capacity to "put pressure on those people who are outside our borders."

He did not elaborate on who the international sources were.

Pakistan has sometimes nabbed Taliban and al-Qaeda suspects on its soil. The U.S. has also launched missile strikes on suspected al-Qaeda hideouts inside Pakistan, although Islamabad condemns it as a breach of its sovereignty.

Saleh said a raid Wednesday by security forces on a hideout in Kabul killed a militant who was also involved in the January suicide raid on the city's Serena Hotel that killed eight people.

The militant, known as Humayun, had escaped to Pakistan after that attack but returned to support the attack on Karzai, he said.

Intelligence officials have said that Humayun had links to a network led by a militant leader Siraj Haqqani.

The network is associated with Taliban and is also believed to have links to al-Qaeda members. It is part of a myriad of militant groups supportive of Afghanistan's former hardline Islamist regime and bent on toppling Karzai's Western-backed government.

The U.S. military has a $200,000 bounty out on Haqqani, who is believed to be based in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility both for the Serena attack and the attempt on Karzai's life.

Last week, Afghan lawmakers passed a vote of no-confidence against Wardak, Saleh and the interior minister after they revealed they had been aware of the plot against Karzai but failed to stop it. The officials, however, retained their jobs.