Bombs kill 5 NATO soldiers

July 18, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan

Five NATO troops died in roadside bombings in Afghanistan, the alliance said Saturday, as international forces announced that they had foiled a terrorist attack on an upcoming conference in Kabul to be attended by leaders from more than 60 nations.

Security is being tightened across the capital for Tuesday’s conference, which is attracting the heads of NATO, the United Nations and top diplomats, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. In May, Taliban fighters had a gunbattle with security forces, and militants launched a rocket that landed with a thud about 100 yards from the site of a national peace conference in the capital; three civilians, but no conference delegates, were wounded.

Acting on intelligence, a combined international and Afghan commando force captured a Taliban bomb-making expert Friday night in Kabul, NATO said.

Neither Afghan nor NATO officials would identify the suspect, give details of the plot or say how advanced the planning was. But the Afghan Defense Ministry said several “enemies of the people” were killed in the raid, and 26 suspected insurgents were arrested.

The ministry said a special Afghan army commando unit based with U.S. special forces outside Kabul carried out the raid in the southwestern district of Wasel Abad of Kabul.