Afghanistan arrests suspect in attack on NATO base

[April 12, 2011]  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A Pakistani man has been arrested on suspicion of leading a botched assault on a NATO base last week that left seven insurgents dead, the Afghan Intelligence Agency said.

A spokesman for the agency, Lutfullah Mashal, said the 26-year-old man named Zarmalok was from the Pakistani city of Peshawar. It is common in both countries for people to go by a single name.

Mashal said the man sneaked into Afghanistan a day before the April 5 attack on NATO's base in the eastern city of Jalalabad. He met another 11 men in Jalalabad and they tried to storm the base firing assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. Seven of the attackers were killed. There were no coalition casualties.

Zarmalok escaped and was captured, the agency spokesman said. It is unclear what happened to the remaining four insurgents and Mashal did not mention them.

Mashal released no other details on the circumstances of the arrest, but did say that Zarmalok was also trained in Pakistan's North Waziristan, a lawless tribal area that borders Afghanistan.

He also announced the arrest of a Taliban operative in Helmand that is though responsible for a number of beheadings in the southwestern province. Identified as Mullah Juma, the man was part of a five-member Taliban judicial committee that regularly put on trial Afghans working for the government, the army or coalition forces. Many were then beheaded, Mashal said. He did not say how many people Mullah Juma was suspected of killing.

[Associated Press; By AMIR SHAH]

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.