U.S. blames Pakistan-based group for attack on embassy in Kabul
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Raising the death toll sharply, American and Afghan officials said Wednesday that the complexity and execution of the siege of the American Embassy and NATO's headquarters in Kabul bore the hallmarks of a militant group based in Pakistan that has become one of the American military's most implacable foes.
Gen. John R. Allen, the NATO commander here, said 16 people had been killed in the attack -- 5 Afghan police officers and 11 civilians, including at least 6 children -- double the number reported on Tuesday.
The militant group that he and other officials blamed for the attack, the Haqqani network, is a crucial ally of Al Qaeda in the Pakistani border region and has been a longtime asset of Pakistan's military and intelligence services in Afghanistan. Pakistan's military chiefs have resisted American pressure to go after the Haqqanis, whose primary base is in North Waziristan, part of Pakistan's tribal areas.
Instead, North Waziristan has become a main target of American drone strikes conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency. Some military officials say the Haqqanis have not been hit as hard as they might have been for fear of worsening relations with Pakistan's intelligence agency, so close are its ties to the network. The Pakistan military has done its best to shut down the drone campaign as relations with the United States have souredafter the killing of Osama bin Laden by American commandos operating deep inside Pakistan.
The Haqqanis have been blamed for high-profile attacks in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan, including thebombing of the Indian Embassy in 2008, which killed 54 people. Afterward, American intelligence officials confronted their Pakistani counterparts with evidence that Haqqani fighters had received support and direction from Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, or ISI.
Hallmarks of attacks linked to the Haqqani network include multiple fighters, targets that are often symbols of the Afghan government and their Western backers, careful planning, and, often, instructions delivered by telephone as the attackers carry out their mission.
"The Haqqanis have been attacking Kabul for a long time because Kabul for so much of this country represents not just the spiritual heartland of this country, it represents the future," General Allen said at a briefing.
He acknowledged that the insurgents had scored a propaganda victory with the attack, which paralyzed central Kabul, bogged down security forces for hours, and illustrated how the militants still have the ability and the will to attack some of the capital's most heavily guarded areas...
(Abridged version)
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