Afghan officials: 16 people arrested for plotting bomb, rocket attacks in Kabul

Afghan officials: 16 arrested for plotting attacks

KABUL — Top Afghan security officials say that during the past month, police have arrested 16 people who were plotting suicide and rocket attacks in the capital, Kabul.

Interior Minister Hanif Atmar told reporters that all but two of the suspects were detained in Kabul, and six were Pakistani nationals.

Kabul police chief Abdulrahman Rahman told The Associated Press that investigators found the suspects admitted to ties to two groups with links to al-Qaida: Hezb-i-Islami, and the Haqqani network, an Afghan Taliban group based in Pakistan.

The officials spoke Thursday on the sidelines of a ceremony honoring officers who have completed a 22-week training program with European police advisers.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

KABUL (AP) — A NATO service member was killed Thursday in a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said.

The death comes a day after another service member died in a small-arms attack in the south. NATO did not identify the victims or their nationalities.

Eight members of the international force have been killed in the country so far this month.

NATO is gearing up for a military campaign this summer in the south. The U.S.-led operation will try to clear the southern city of Kandahar of Taliban fighters in what will be a critical test of the war.

Also Thursday, hundreds of Afghans shouting “Death to Iran” gathered outside the Iranian Embassy in Kabul Thursday, saying Afghan refugees who live in the country face abuse.

About a million Afghan refugees live in Iran.