KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s security service Tuesday denied claims that a suicide bomber who killed two American troops and four Afghans in a weekend attack was a member of the country’s intelligence agency.
The remarks contradict statements by U.S. and local officials who had described the assault as an insider attack and the first of its kind by a member of Afghanistan’s elite intelligence service.
In the attack Saturday, the bomber blew himself up as a group of Americans and Afghan officials were arriving to deliver new office furniture to the intelligence headquarters in Kandahar’s Maruf district. Two American troops and four Afghan intelligence agents died in the blast.
The NATO military coalition and local officials said the bomber was a member of Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security, or NDS.
But Shafiqullah Tahiri, spokesman for the intelligence agency, said Tuesday that the attacker had worn an Afghan uniform to gain access to the building in Kandahar.
“The suicide bomber was never on the staff of the NDS,” he said. “Unfortunately, the local media reported this. It created concern among the people of Afghanistan.”