Thursday, December 5, 2002
Iran fears Al-Qaeda attack on Kabul embassy: Reports
Agence France-Presse Tehran, December 5
Iran has received information of a specific Al-Qaeda or Taliban threat against its Kabul embassy, possibly including a car bombing, press reports said on Thursday.
The reports quoted Iranian diplomats as warning that members of the ousted militia or the shadowy terror network were preparing either bomb attacks or assassinations against Iranian interests in Kabul, including the embassy and journalists from state media.
"Two Arab members of Al-Qaeda have entered Kabul to bomb the Iranian embassy or to attempt suicide attacks against Iranian diplomats," an Iranian diplomat, Ashja Zadeh, was quoted in Entekhab paper as saying.
Iranian diplomats were also quoted as complaining over the lack of security and protection provided for the Kabul embassy, but the reports did not say what, if any, emergency measures had been taken.
Contacted by AFP, foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi refused to give any further comment, but said Iran was "investigating the threats". Iran, which supplied the Taliban's opponents with military support after the militia captured Kabul in 1996, has a major diplomatic presence in Afghanistan.
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