Afghan security forces say they have found a suspected al-Qaida chemical laboratory in a house in a Kabul neighborhood.
Official Kabul radio reported Saturday that Afghan soldiers found 16 different kinds of chemicals and explosives in the house, along with various documents. It gave no details on those papers.
The radio report says the house in Kabul's Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood was, at one time, used by the non-governmental Saudi organization Wafa.
The group was involved in pre-September 11th construction and food distribution projects in Afghanistan.
Wafa is on the State Department's original list of groups suspected of terrorism whose assets have been frozen by President Bush. The list was released two weeks after last year's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
Western officials with the international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan have not commented on the Radio Kabul report.
Earlier Saturday, U-S officials said the State Department is taking over the responsibility of guarding Afghan President Hamid Karzai from the Pentagon.
The State Department's Diplomatic Security Service will assume the duties next month and guard Mr. Karzai for one year while Afghan security personnel train for the job.
U-S Special Operations forces have been guarding Mr. Karzai since last month's assassination of Afghan Vice President Abdul Qadir.
The Washington Post newspaper reports that Secretary of State Colin Powell believes it is more appropriate for civilian security personnel to guard the Afghan president instead of soldiers.