Afghan security officials said they had discovered a bomb on Tuesday in a crowded bazaar about a third of a mile from the U.S. embassy in Kabul. Intelligence officials said the device, consisting of several pounds of explosives packed into a gas container, was found at a shop in the bazaar on the main road between Kabul airport and the U.S. embassy.

The road was sealed off and the device removed from the bazaar with the help of soldiers from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the officials told Reuters.

They said the shopkeeper was being questioned.

"We would have seen a lot of destruction and killing if the explosives had gone off in the bazaar," one of the officials said, adding that ISAF and police planned to detonate the device in a safe area.

The discovery comes less than a month after authorities discovered a car packed with several hundred pounds of explosives and arrested a foreign national they said confessed to planning an assassination attempt against government leaders including President Hamid Karzai.

Late last Thursday, a small bomb went off outside the communications ministry, shattering windows but causing no casualties.

Security officials blamed that attack on remnants of the Taliban regime ousted with U.S. backing late last year, or their allies in Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States.

However, police later said the bomb was detonated as part of a security drill.

Kabul residents say the security situation has worsened in recent weeks.

In early July, the vice president and public works minister, Haji Abdul Qadir, was shot dead in broad daylight outside his office by unknown attackers.

PHOTO CAPTION

Explosions from U.S. bombs rise over the Taliban positions in the Qala-Cata mountains, northern Afghanistan, in this Nov. 7, 2001 file photo. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)
- Aug 12 12:52 PM ET