Likely Afghan Terror Attack Thwarted

International peacekeeping troops in Kabul are revealing the weekend seizure of a fuel tanker truck with sticks of dynamite attached to it - on its way to Bagram Air Base, the headquarters of the U.S. military in Afghanistan.

Also Wednesday, in Kandahar, an Afghan source is reporting the arrest of four men described as a senior Taliban official and three of his aides. An official speaking on the condition of anonymity says Mullah Sher Mohammad Malang, governor of the southwestern province of Nimruz during Taliban rule, and his aides were caught in a raid on a mosque in Kandahar city last week.

The two revelations came as Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah visited Washington, expressing his concern that the Bush Administration's focus on Iraq might distract the U.S. from the still unfinished war on terrorism in Afghanistan.

In Kabul, multinational peacekeeping force spokesman Squadron Leader Terry Hay says the dynamite-rigged tanker truck was filled with aviation fuel when it was stopped at a checkpoint in southern Kabul on Saturday by Afghan soldiers and international peacekeepers.

He says two men in the truck were arrested.

Security services had been on the lookout for the tanker after receiving a tip a week before that it might be passing through the Afghan capital.

"It was headed to Bagram but it was intercepted here in Kabul on its way through," Hay said. "The checkpoint picked it up and the two men in it were taken into custody. It was a job well done. It might have been a bloody mess otherwise."

Hay said nine sticks of dynamite were fastened to the tanker, one of them with a fuse attached.

Security has been stepped up significantly in Kabul since Sept. 5, when a car bomb exploded on a busy street in the city center, killing 30 people and wounding more than 150.

Authorities blamed al-Qaeda terrorists for that blast. Police arrested two previous owners of the car in which the bomb exploded, but the current owner has not been found.