Thugs attack, beat Afghan attorney-general: aide

KABUL (Reuters) - Thugs attacked and beat Afghanistan's attorney-general, a critic of some of the country's factional leaders and former warlords, on a road north of Kabul on Friday, an aide to the attorney-general said. A group of men stopped Abdul Jabar Sabet's car on Friday morning at a road block and hit him with clubs and rifle butts after he got out of the vehicle, said the aide.

The aide, who said he had witnessed the attack and spoke on condition of anonymity, said some assailants were bodyguards for a general inside the interior ministry. Sabet had been taken to hospital, he said. The aide did not have details of his injuries.

Sabet has spoken out against corrupt elements within the government, especially governors who are members of the Northern Alliance, a confederation of militias and warlords that helped U.S.-led troops overthrow the Taliban in 2001.