Twenty-five suspected militants arrested in Kabul, explosives found

KABUL (AFP) - Twenty-five suspected militants were arrested in a pre-dawn swoop and a cache of explosives was seized in Kabul just a week ahead of Afghanistan's historic presidential elections, officials and intelligence sources said.
An Afghan intelligence source told AFP the men were detained after a shipping container holding explosives, rockets and a waistcoat of the type used in suicide bombings was discovered.
Lieutenant Commander Ken Mackillop of the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan told a news conference the men were arrested early Saturday in the Pul-I-Charkhi area of eastern Kabul.
The men had "reported ties" to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terror network, the ousted Taliban regime and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a renegade Afghan warlord branded as a wanted terrorist by the US and Afghan authorities, Mackillop said.
The raid was led by the Afghan National Directorate of Security backed by troops from the US-led coalition and NATO, which heads the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
Mackillop said nobody was injured in the raid but gave no further details, citing security reasons.
The Afghan intelligence source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the security forces had been tipped off about the container, which was said to hold seven suicide vests.
All the other information proved accurate, but six vests were missing, possibly distributed to bombers, he said.
Remnants of the Taliban regime have vowed to disrupt the election, and hundreds of people have been killed in attacks and bombings this year, including 26 US soldiers.
Bin Laden, whose presence in Afghanistan sparked the US-led invasion in 2001, is believed to possibly be somewhere in the wild border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, casting a shadow over the October 9 elections.
A spokesman for the US-led coalition, Major Scott Nelson, warned at the news conference that "we are coming closer to a more dangerous time", with stepped up attacks expected in the run-up to the vote.
"We still anticipate those opposed to stability in Afghanistan will attempt to disrupt the election," he said.
"Significant threats still exist in Kabul and Kandahar (in the south). The Taliban have stated publicly many times that they will really target those two cities."
"We think we have done a good job with the government of Afghanistan in disrupting a lot of their operations, but it only takes one person with a car bomb to get in there and get lucky."
Ten people were killed in a car-bomb attack in Kabul on August 29.
Threats had also been made to attack polling sites on election day, Nelson said.
"The Taliban and Al-Qaeda are clearly fighting against the wishes of the people of Afghanistan by attacking the on-going process.
"We expect some attacks and the coalition is taking measures to counter them, along with the government of Afghanistan, the United Nations and ISAF," he said.
The Afghan National Army and coalition forces were conducting "aggressive operations throughout the nation. As a result, we have had more frequent contact with anti-coalition militia forces," he said.
A key Taliban leader, a sub-commander, had been captured recently in Ghazni in the southeast, he said.
Ten pro-government militiamen were killed in attacks this week, while four people, including three would-be bombers, were killed and three injured when their bombs blew up prematurely.