Kabul, Afghanistan ? Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network is regrouping and preparing to bring Iraq-style bloodshed to Afghanistan, the defense minister said Friday, warning his country may face intense violence ahead of key legislative elections this fall.

Recent intelligence indicates the terror organization slipped about half a dozen Arab agents into Afghanistan over the past three weeks, including two who detonated themselves in suicide bombings against a packed mosque and a convoy of U.S. troops, Defense Minister Rahim Wardak told The Associated Press.

“It looks like there has been a regrouping of al-Qaida and they may have changed their tactics not only to concentrate on Iraq but also on Afghanistan,” Wardak said in an interview over tea at his wood-paneled office next to the heavily guarded presidential compound.

Wardak’s comments came a day after the outgoing U.S. ambassador warned at a Kabul news conference that militants were likely to try to subvert the legislative balloting.

“As we get closer to the elections, they are likely to intensify their efforts to : derail the elections,” said Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who has been tapped by President Bush to be the top U.S. diplomat in Iraq.

Referring to the infiltration of Arab fighters for al-Qaida, Wardak said: “We have gotten reports here and there that they have entered – at least half a dozen of them. The last report is that they came in just close to the time of the mosque attack.”

That June 1 blast killed 20 mourners in Kandahar at the funeral of a moderate cleric who had been assassinated days earlier. The same day, a shoulder-launched, surface-to-air missile was fired at an American aircraft, but missed. On Monday, a suicide bomber drove up to a U.S. military vehicle in Kandahar and detonated himself, wounding four U.S. soldiers.

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O’Hara said Friday it would not be appropriate to comment on the attacks, which are still under investigation.

Wardak would not say where the al-Qaida fighters entered from, but other Afghan intelligence sources told the AP that the men are believed to have crossed the border from Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province, and that more were on the way. Pakistan vehemently denies it is a sanctuary for al-Qaida or the Taliban.

The bombings represented a sea change in the tactics of the insurgency, now in its fourth year. Afghan Taliban fighters have rarely resorted to suicide attacks, a practice that is considered more common among Arab militants.