Attacks on US embassy, palace thwarted, Afghan spy agency says

Afghanistan's intelligence agency on Thursday said it has thwarted planned attacks on the presidential palace and US facilities in Kabul, DPA reported.

Officers with the National Directorate of Security (NDS) arrested three people in Kabul who had been trained in Pakistan's tribal areas, spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told reporters in Kabul.

"They intended to carry out suicide bombing and terrorist attacks against the US embassy in Kabul, the presidential palace and Ariana Hotel but the NDS arrested them" before they could carry out their attacks, Mashal said.

The Ariana Hotel is believed to be occupied by the US Central Intelligence Agency. US officials have told dpa that it has been converted into one of their facilities, without providing details.

The building is next to the president's office and the US embassy.

All three suspects were Afghans nationals, and had been trained in the Spin Tal area in Waziristan, north-western Pakistan, by two commanders of the al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, Mashal said.

The arrests were made two weeks ago in the capital while the suspects were looking for a house to rent near their targets, he said.

Last year, six suicide bombers attacked the US embassy, sparking 20-hour long fight with Afghan and international forces.

Mashal said that two of the suspects were engineering and agriculture students at universities in Kabul and Paktia provinces, while the third was a lecturer in the eastern province of Logar.