Chance Helps Afghans Foil Suspected Bomb Plot

KABUL, Afghanistan —  The Afghan capital’s chaotic traffic and a tip from foreign intelligence foiled a suicide car bombing that would have been “beyond comprehension,” an Afghan intelligence official said Tuesday.

In the Monday incident, the would-be bomber’s vehicle collided with another near the U.S. Embassy, intelligence official Amonullah Barakzai said. The driver sped away and police cornered his Toyota Corolla station wagon at a checkpoint, where they found it was packed with half a ton of explosives, Barakzai said.

Investigators said the main suspect was believed to be a foreigner and an Al Qaeda member. “He was on a suicide mission,” Barakzai said. “It was beyond comprehension.” An alleged Afghan accomplice was arrested, but a second escaped, said Gen. Din Mohammed Jurat, chief of the Interior Ministry police.

The accident occurred near the fortress-like embassy, President Hamid Karzai’s offices and the headquarters of the international security force that patrols the capital. Jurat said interrogation of the suspects indicated that their preferred target was an Afghan leader and that the peacekeepers’ base was the next choice.

Investigators determined that the car bomb mission originated in or passed through the southeastern cities of Khowst and Gardez, Jurat said.