Fuel tanker with dynamite seized

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A fuel tanker seized over the weekend with sticks of dynamite attached to it was headed to Bagram Air Base, the headquarters of the U.S. military in Afghanistan, a peacekeeping spokesman said Tuesday.\nThe truck was filled with aviation fuel when it was stopped Saturday by Afghan soldiers and international peacekeepers at a checkpoint in southern Kabul, said Squadron Leader Terry Hay, a spokesman for the multinational force.\nTwo men in the truck were arrested, Hay said.\nSecurity services had been on the lookout for the tanker after receiving a tip a week before that it might be passing through the Afghan capital.\n"It was headed to Bagram but it was intercepted here in Kabul on its way through," Hay said. "The checkpoint picked it up and the two men in it were taken into custody. It was a job well done. It might have been a bloody mess otherwise."\nU.S. officials at Bagram could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday night.\nState television first reported the incident in a broadcast Sunday, saying a possible terrorist attack had been averted. That report said several people aboard the truck were detained but the driver was released.\nHay said nine sticks of dynamite were fastened to the tanker, one of them with a fuse attached.\nSecurity has been stepped up significantly in Kabul since Sept. 5, when a car bomb exploded on a busy street in the city center, killing 30 people and wounding more than 150.\nAuthorities blamed al qaeda terrorists for that blast. Police arrested two previous owners of the car in which the bomb exploded, but the current owner has not been found.\nThe International Security Assistance Force has about 4,800 soldiers deployed in Kabul. The peacekeepers conduct some 40 patrols a day with jeeps and armored vehicles.