Afghan police and international peacekeepers raided a compound Monday in Kabul and arrested eight men with suspected links to al-Qaida and a group loyal to a banned Afghan warlord, a spokesman said.
Among those detained was one man believed to be a senior member of renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hezb-e-Islami group, said Cmdr. Chris Henderson. Henderson would not reveal the names or nationalities of any suspects but said authorities had seized weapons, explosives and documents that showed the suspects had links to both groups.
This operation “has successfully removed from the streets of Kabul a number of people were deemed to pose an imminent threat to security here in Afghanistan,” Henderson said.
No injuries were reported during the four-hour operation, which began at 2 a.m.
The raid, in a compound near Kabul’s main stadium, was the second in the capital in as many weeks targeting suspects linked to Hekmatyar, whose Hezb-e-Islami group has teamed with al-Qaida and Taliban holdouts in frequent attacks on the U.S.-led coalition.
Six men, including one described as a senior Hekmatyar commander, were arrested in the capital on April 13 in an operation conducted by Afghan police backed by about 100 peacekeepers. They also were not identified.
