National Directorate of Security (NDS) forces have arrested three members of Haqqani network in Kabul, the NDS confirmed on Sunday.
According to the statement the three Haqqani members were arrested in connection with the truck bomb near Zanbaq Square in Kabul city in May 2017.
The suspects are from Maidan Wardak province and reportedly confessed to the bombing during an interrogation. According to the NDS, these three suspects organized the bombing.
The NDS also said that the three suspects had been involved in a number of other attacks.
However, the NDS did not provide details regarding their identity.
The deadly May 2017 truck bomb was detonated at the entrance of the Green Zone close to Zanbaq Square in Kabul city at 8:20am on a Wednesday morning in May 2017.
At least 85 people were killed in the incident and about 400 were wounded.
The Taliban rejected any involvement in the blast.
This latest arrest comes after eight people were sentenced to extended jail terms last week after being found guilty of conspiring in the Intercontinental Hotel attack in Kabul in January last year, a source from the Attorney General’s Office confirmed.
The AGO source said the eight people had been found guilty of aiding in the attack and transporting explosives. The eight were not however named.
The source said that three of the guilty parties were sentenced to 20 years in prison and five to 22 years in prison.
A group of insurgents stormed the Intercontinental Hotel in Bagh-e-Bala area in Kabul city on 28 January last year which resulted in the death of at least 29 people. At the time however, one source said the death toll could have been as high as 43.
Fourteen foreign nationals were among the dead.
Over 100 hotel guests and staff were rescued during the 17 hour siege, including 41 foreign nationals.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and said five attackers had been involved in the siege.
Eyewitnesses at the time said there had been an engagement party at the hotel when the attack happened and that gunmen opened fire on guests.
The state-owned hotel, built in the 1960s, is not part of the global InterContinental chain. However, guests believed it to be secure and well protected.
However, witnesses at the time claimed the hotel’s security guards fled the attackers and left guests to their fate. Hotel security had been taken over by a private company just three weeks before the attack.
