Afghan judge arrested in car-bombing
KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghan authorities have arrested a judge in connection with the car-bombing of a U.S. security firm that killed at least 10 people, and a senior official alleged that the attack was ordered by an Iraqi member of al Qaeda.
Three Americans were among those killed in the Aug. 29 blast outside the Kabul office of Dyncorp, an American contractor that provides bodyguards for President Hamid Karzai and trains Afghan police.
Naqibullah, a 65-year-old preliminary court judge, was detained about two weeks ago after two men accused of organizing the bombing told investigators they had stayed at the judge’s house in Kabul, Gen. Abdul Fatah, a senior Afghan prosecutor, told the Associated Press.
“He is accused of two things. First, he let the terrorists stay in his house. Second, he was aware of their activities but didn’t inform anyone,” Fatah said.
Naqibullah, who like many Afghans goes by one name, was the head of a preliminary court in the Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul, Fatah said.
Intelligence officials identified the alleged ringleader of the car-bombing and an Oct. 23 suicide attack that killed an American woman and an Afghan girl as Mohammed Haidar.
Haidar, a Tajik national, has allegedly confessed to orchestrating both attacks. Fatah said an accomplice, Abdul Ahad, was arrested along with him.
The suicide bomber and the two organizers “stayed in (Naqibullah’s) house all the time, from the beginning to the end of their mission,” spanning both attacks, Fatah said.
Intelligence officials have said Haidar organized the attacks on the instructions of a suspected al Qaeda member called Attaullah, who was based in Peshawar in neighboring Pakistan.
Fatah said Attaullah was an Iraqi national and identified the suicide bomber as a Kashmiri named Akbar.
“First, they brought another guy, also a foreigner, but in the end he didn’t want to do it. So they took him back to Peshawar and brought Akbar,” Fatah said. “All three received their orders from Attaullah. He is an Iraqi who is outside the country. Without any doubt he is a member of al Qaeda.”