Al-Qaida men held in swoop

Afghan police and international peacekeepers raided a compound in the capital Kabul early today and arrested eight men with suspected links to al-Qaida and a group loyal to a banned Afghan warlord, a spokesman for the peacekeepers said.

Among those taken in was one man believed to be a senior member of renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hezb-e-Islami group, said Commander Chris Henderson.

Henderson would not reveal the names or nationalities of any of those arrested, but said authorities had seized weapons, explosives and documents that showed the suspects had links to both groups.

“This was a very successful operation that 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.

There were no injuries to authorities or any of the suspects in the operation.

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.