IS Suspect Arrested in Pakistan Attack 12/05 06:17

   

   ISLAMABAD (AP) -- A member of the militant Islamic State group has been 
arrested in last week's shooting attack targeting the Pakistani Embassy in 
Afghanistan's capital of Kabul, the spokesman of the Taliban government said.

   The attack, in which shots were fired at the embassy from a nearby building, 
triggered anger in Pakistan, and increased tensions between the two South Asian 
neighbors.

   Pakistan's top diplomat in Kabul was walking across the lawn inside the 
embassy compound at the time of the attack. He was unharmed but one of his 
Pakistani guards was wounded.

   The regional affiliate of the Islamic State group, known as the Islamic 
State in Khorasan Province and a rival of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, has 
claimed responsibility for Friday's attack.

   The Islamic State group said two of its fighters attacked "the renegade 
Pakistani ambassador and his guards" while they were inside the embassy's yard. 
The statement gave no further details.

   The chief spokesman for the Taliban government, Zabihullah Mujahid, 
announced the arrest of a suspect in a tweet Monday.

   Mujahid said the suspect is a foreign national and that the attack was 
organized jointly by IS and "rebels," apparently a reference to anti-Taliban 
groups in Afghanistan.

   "Some foreign circles are behind the attack and the aim was to create 
distrust between the two brotherly countries Afghanistan and Pakistan," Mujahid 
wrote, without elaborating.

   The Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces 
were in the final weeks of their pullout from the country after 20 years of 
war. They established their own administration, the Islamic Emirate of 
Afghanistan.