Terror attack on Kabul conference foiled

KABUL - Five NATO troops died in roadside bombs in Afghanistan, the alliance said yesterday, as international forces announced that they had foiled a terrorist attack on an upcoming conference in Kabul to be attended by leaders from more than 60 nations.

Security is being tightened across the capital for Tuesday's conference, which is attracting the heads of NATO, the United Nations and top diplomats, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Acting on intelligence, a combined international and Afghan commando force captured a Taliban bomb-making expert Friday night in Kabul, NATO said.

Neither Afghan nor NATO officials would not identify the suspect, give details of the plot or say how advanced the planning was. But the Afghan Defense Ministry said several "enemies of the people" were killed in the raid and 26 suspected insurgents were arrested.

The ministry said a special Afghan army commando unit based with U.S. special forces outside Kabul carried out the raid in the southwestern district of Wasel Abad of Kabul.

Elsewhere, three international service members were killed by homemade bombs yesterday, including an American in eastern Afghanistan and a British soldier in the south, NATO and Britain's Defense Ministry said. A third service member died Saturday in the south, but NATO did not disclose the nationality or any details of the attacks.

The deaths added to a summer of escalating violence as Afghan and coalition forces step up patrols in the Taliban-dominated south in a push to wrest control of the traditional insurgent stronghold.

Last month was the deadliest of the nearly 9-year-old war for international troops, with 103 killed, including 60 Americans. So far in July, 54 international troops have died, 39 of them American.

Homemade bombs - many planted in roads by insurgents - are the leading cause of death to both troops and civilians.