Suicide Bomber Shot Dead Near Afghan Jirga Site

Posted November 14th, 2011 at 9:35 am (UTC-5)
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Afghan security forces have killed an attempted suicide bomber in Kabul near the site of this week's assembly of tribal elders, or loya jirga.

Authorities say a man carrying a bag of explosives was shot dead on Monday.

The Taliban said Sunday that it has acquired the security plans for Wednesday's loya jirga, where some 2,000 community and tribal leaders will discuss a future U.S.-Afghan strategic partnership agreement and efforts to reconcile with the Taliban.

NATO officials have dismissed the documents published on a Taliban website as a “fabricated piece of propaganda.” Afghan officials say the material is a scare tactic, designed to intimidate participants coming to the meeting.

The Taliban said on its website the group had received the plans from its personnel “embedded inside the enemy ranks.”

Jirga participants are expected to discuss what presence, if any, the United States will have in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of all combat troops in 2014.

The Taliban has repeatedly called on all foreign forces to leave the country immediately and last year fired rockets at the tent where the the loya jirga was being held.

Also Monday, Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told reporters that one of the Taliban's main spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, was arrested in the eastern province of Paktika.

But the Associated Press said it reached the man by phone, who denied being captured.

Elsewhere in the east, NATO said one of its service members was killed in an insurgent attack on Monday. The coalition did not give details.

And the U.S. military says that a detainee at a detention facility in Parwan province died early Sunday. The military says the man had been receiving medical care since being captured during a combat operation in Kunar province on October 25.