Afghan police arrest two would-be suicide bombers in Kunduz

Police arrested two would-be suicide bombers who had intended to target NATO forces in the northern region of Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday.

The alleged bombers, 15-year-old Farid Ahmad and 19-year-old Nadir Shah, were arrested separately over the last two days, Samimullah Qatra, the provincial police chief, told a press conference, DPA reported.

The police have also arrested their suspected facilitator, Mullah Abdul Satar, who had brought the militants over from Pakistan, Qatra said. The young men received training on how to carry out attacks in an Islamic school in Pakistan's tribal areas, he added.

Journalists were allowed to question Ahmad at a press conference Tuesday.

"I went to Pakistan three years ago for religious studies," Ahmad said, adding that he was later prodded into learning how to use weapons and carry out suicide bombings.

Ahmad said he was instructed to shoot Afghan personnel stationed at the gate of Kunduz airport and then attack foreign forces inside the base by detonating his suicide vest.

Qatra said that Shah had also planned to carry out an attack in the city. The militants had been waiting for their suicide vests to arrive from outside the province.

Kunduz, where hundreds of German and US troops are based, has seen a spate of suicide attacks in recent months.

The Taliban insurgents, who lost their main redoubts in the province in a major military operation earlier this year, have stepped up their bombings.

A number of senior provincial officials have died in suicide attacks over the last year, including provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Sayedkhili, who was killed in a suicide bombing last month.