U.S. military suspects top ally of Afghan warlord in bombings

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The U.S. military said that it is holding a senior ally of renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and suspects the man was involved in helping organize two suicide bomb attacks that killed one British and one Canadian peacekeeper earlier this year.
The arrest Wednesday of Amanullah had been announced previously, but the military had given no details of what he was suspected of doing.
Military spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said today that Amanullah harbored militant leaders and had a hand in protecting the men who carried out the January suicide bombings in Kabul.
One Canadian and one British soldier died in back-to-back suicide bombings in the capital in late January. Both attacks were claimed by the Taliban.
Amanullah "provided safe haven perhaps for the bombers or for people who facilitated the bombers," Hilferty said.
He said the man was also suspected of involvement in other bombings in Kabul, but declined to give details.
"We do suspect him, though, of harboring anti-coalition leaders," Hilferty added.
Amanullah, who like many Afghans uses only one name, was a commander in central Wardak province for Hekmatyar's Hizb-e Islami faction during the U.S.-backed war against Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers in the 1980s.