Afghanistan’s intelligence agencies said today that two major Taliban attacks in Kabul have been averted in the past 20 days. The first was a plot to assassinate the country’s vice president and the second was a plan to set off car bombs at President Hamid Karzai’s palace in downtown Kabul.

 Authorities arrested five people who had been plotting a shooting and suicide bomb attack at the home of First Vice President Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim, said Latifullah Mashal, an Afghan government spokesman.