5 would-be suicide bombers arrested outside Kabul

KABUL - Acting on an intelligence tip, Afghan police said they arrested five would-be suicide bombers yesterday as they tried to enter Kabul, thwarting a major attack and capturing the largest such team ever in the capital.

Police believe the bombers were sent by an al-Qaida-linked insurgent group based in Pakistan, and their capture follows widespread rumors that militants were planning attacks in the diplomatic quarter of Kabul.

The would-be bombers were stopped about 7 a.m. at a checkpoint in the southeastern edge of the city, traveling in an SUV with explosive vests hidden beneath the engine block, according to Abdul Ghafar, deputy commander of the Afghan National Police crisis unit.

Ghafar said police had been given a description of the vehicle. Police said they believed the would-be bombers were headed for a safe house in the capital to make final preparations for their suicide assault.

"If this team had made it through it would have been a disaster," Ghafar said.

Police said the five men, ranged in age from 20 to 25, refused to give their names or nationalities. But authorities were convinced they were sent by the Haqqani group, a Pakistan-based Afghan Taliban faction with close ties to al-Qaida.

In Washington, meanwhile, Pentagon officials said the number of crude roadside bombs in Afghanistan has doubled in the past year, prompting the rushing of billions of dollars worth of new protective gear to troops and double the number of road-clearing teams.

The campaign against the deadly devices follows Pentagon warnings of an increase in casualties in the months to come. President Barack Obama ordered more than 30,000 troops deployed to Afghanistan and already more U.S. deaths have accompanied the rise in forces.