‘Guard in murder plot was not close to Karzai’

A man accused of being a key player in a plot to assassinate Afghan President Hamid Karzai was not a close bodyguard and did not have freedom of movement within the well-protected presidential palace complex,Karzai’s office said on Saturday.

Afghanistan’s intelligence agency,National Directorate of Security,said on Wednesday it had foiled a plot to kill Karzai,after detaining a bodyguard and five others officials said were linked to the Haqqani network,an insurgent network,and al-Qaeda.

The palace,in an apparent attempt to downplay the actual risk to Karzai’s life,implied there had been some exaggeration of the would-be killer’s position.

“Mohebullah Ahmadi had no authority to act on his own and was just guarding a gate outside the presidential palace,” Karzai’s office said.