The claims were from 17 attackers who were arrested in the past month before they had the chance to strike, Sayed Ansari, the spokesman for the Afghan National Directorate of Security told reporters.

Pakistan, which like Afghanistan is a key US ally in the “war on terror”, has repeatedly denied the existence of militant training facilities on its soil.

“All of the detained have confessed they received training for suicide attacks, attacks against schools and institutions from Arab, Chechen and Uzbek instructors on the other side of the border (Pakistan),” said Ansari.

He said illiterate people, those with a poor religious education or from deprived backgrounds were being “brainwashed” in Pakistani training camps across the border and sent to Afghanistan.

“They focus on religious feelings of people, show them made-up videos of coalition forces in Afghanistan, preach that Islam is in danger in Afghanistan and the government does not have control to make them ready for their inauspicious attempts,” he said.

 Dozens of Arabs and Central Asian Al Qaeda militants fled from Afghanistan to Pakistan after US-led forces ousted the Taleban in late 2001 for sheltering Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks.

Suicide attacks in Afghanistan have soared this year. Ansari said there had been 72 suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year killing 101 civilians, who made up 80 percent of casualties.

The United Nations says there have been 91 attacks in which around 170 civilians have died.