Afghan agents break up cell
Afghan authorities announced Tuesday that they had broken up a suicide-bombing cell responsible for a string of attacks in the capital...

By Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan authorities announced Tuesday that they had broken up a suicide-bombing cell responsible for a string of attacks in the capital, including a massive explosion last month that killed an American serviceman and wounded five other U.S. soldiers.

In a disclosure likely to stoke tensions with Pakistan, a spokesman for Afghanistan's main intelligence service said the 17 men arrested in Kabul were believed to be affiliated with a Pakistan-based militant group known as the Haqqani network and that the cell's ringleader was a Pakistani national.

The spokesman, Sayed Ansari, hinted that the plotters were also assisted by Pakistan's powerful Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, known as the ISI.

Afghanistan has long accused Pakistan of failing to crack down on insurgents who use Pakistan's lawless tribal areas as a staging ground for attacks inside Afghanistan.

The spy agency's long-standing ties to the Haqqani network, led by veteran Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajjudin, were spotlighted last year when U.S. intelligence backed up Afghan authorities' assertion that the ISI had aided the group in its bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul in July. That attack killed nearly 60 people.

Meanwhile, U.S. forces in Afghanistan saw their supply lines squeezed from the north and east Tuesday after militants blew up a bridge in the Khyber Pass in Pakistan, and Kyrgyzstan said it would end U.S. use of a key air base following Russia's announcement of new aid for the Central Asian nation.

However, the U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan said early today that talks will continue on keeping the base in the country despite the Kyrgyz president's announcement.

Securing efficient and safe supply routes into Afghanistan has become a top priority for U.S. officials as the Pentagon prepares to send in up to 30,000 more American forces this year. Some 75 percent of U.S. supplies travel through Pakistan, where militants have stepped up attacks on truck convoys destined for U.S. bases. The top U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan shrugged off any supply worries after Tuesday's events, saying traffic was already flowing again in Pakistan after the attack. "They made a bypass," said Col. Greg Julian.

He also dismissed Kyrgyzstan's threat to close access to the Manas air base as nothing but "political positioning." Gen. David Petraeus, who oversees the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, met with officials in Kyrgyzstan last month and "came away with the sense that everything was fine," Julian said.

"We have a standing contract, and they're making millions off our presence there. There are no plans to shut down access to it anytime soon," Julian told The Associated Press.

President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's statement that U.S. forces would have to stop using Manas air base came after Russia said it was providing the poor Central Asian nation with billion of dollars of aid.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has made increasing overtures to Russia in recent weeks. His office released correspondence between the two countries saying Russia is ready to cooperate on defense matters.