Suicide Bomber Kills 5 in Kabul

According to intelligence sources, the bomber was a 35-year-old Chechen named Abdullah. They said intelligence agents were trailing a car which contained the Chechen and his companion, an unnamed Afghan. The intelligence agents stopped the car, searched it, and removed a bomb.

According to the intelligence sources, they then took the Chechen to their car, when they got inside it the Chechen detonated himself, killing the five intelligence agents along with himself. The bomber's Afghan companion is now in custody.

One of the agents who were killed was Abdul Jalal, a bodyguard for Defence Minister Marshal Fahim.

A police source said that the condition of one of those injured was critical.

A senior policeman said "the bombing was an act by al-Qaeda and the Taleban to frighten the people... they wanted to sabotage the Loya Jirga."

But Hamid Aqa ,a Taleban spokesman,told the BBC that the Taleban had no part in the attack.

Over the past two weeks during the Loya Jirga, there have been several explosions and rocket attacks in Kabul. On Thursday morning a United Nations guesthouse in Shashdarak was bombed. There was little damage to the building, and there were no injuries.

There was another explosion at a hotel in front of the customs office on the outskirts of Kabul at the beginning of last week. Five people were injured in that attack.

Maulawi Mohammad Younus, a senior Taleban commander, was arrested last Monday in Helmand province. Four rockets were fired on Kabul soon after his arrest. On the same day, a bomb exploded near the United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan office in Kandahar. There was little damage and no injuries.

On the road to Kabul from Jalalabad, a "night letter" was distributed Saturday from Taleban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, demanding, "Everywhere you see the Americans and invaders, kill them. The blood of them is not a sin to God."

The letter also told Afghans to "raise your voice against the ongoing Loya Jirga and rise against America and do not accept the constitution made in America's shadow."

Bashir Gwakh is an independent journalist from Jalalabad participating in IWPR's Loya Jirga reporting project.