Kabul, Afghanistan ? Al-Qaida and other militants have smuggled explosives, weapons and millions of dollars in cash into Afghanistan for a resurgent terror campaign, the country’s defense minister warned on Wednesday.

His comments came after an unprecedented spate of suicide assaults – the latest on Wednesday when a bomber attacked a U.S. military convoy in the southern city of Kandahar, killing three civilians.

Intelligence indicates that a number of Arabs and other foreigners have entered Afghanistan to launch suicide attacks, Abdul Rahim Wardak told The Associated Press.

Besides explosives, the weapons smuggled into Afghanistan include remote-controlled timing devices and other computerized detonators for bombs, he said. He declined to give a specific amount of smuggled money, but said it was in the millions of dollars.

“There has been … more money and more weapons flowing into their hands in recent months,” Wardak said. “We see similarities between the type of attacks here and in Iraq.”

He said al-Qaida militants were increasingly teaming up with local rebels from the ousted Taliban movement to undermine President Hamid Karzai’s U.S.-backed government because they have realize their influence is waning.

“There is no doubt that there is a connection between Taliban and al-Qaida and some other fundamentalists,” he said. “In most cases, the suicide bombers are foreigners … from the Middle East, from neighboring countries. … It is a new trend.”

It has long been believed that the Taliban and al-Qaida maintained ties after U.S.-led forces ousted the regime in 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. But recent bombings, and Wardak’s comments, reinforce fears that they’ve merged some of their forces.

Until two months ago, suicide bombings had been relatively rare in Afghanistan, with only a few reported in the past year, unlike in Iraq. But nine such assaults have occurred nationwide starting on Sept. 28.