Afghanistan: Haqqani militants blamed for string of deadly attacks

The 18-hour offensive left 36 insurgents and 11 others dead and was the largest in Kabul since insurgents fired on western embassies and Nato headquarters last September. That attack was also blamed on the Haqqani network, which commands the loyalties of an estimated 10,000 fighters and is a serious threat to Nato in Afghanistan.

Afghan interior minister Besmillah Mohammadi said one militant arrested during Sunday’s assault on Kabul and three other cities confessed that he was loyal to the Haqqanis. An Afghan intelligence official said three other insurgents detained for allegedly plotting to assassinate one of the nation’s two vice-presidents also said they were part of the Haqqani network.

And officials in two provinces said they too suspected that attacks in their cities were the work of the Haqqanis.

The Haqqani network, led by Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin, operate primarily in provinces along Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan. Nato spokesman Carsten Jacobson once described the group as a “family clan, a criminal patronage network and a terrorist organisation”.

US Admiral Mike Mullen, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said last October that the Haqqani network acts as a “veritable arm” of the Pakistani intelligence agency – an accusation Islamabad denied. Admiral Mullen accused the network of staging the 13 September attack in Kabul, as well as a truck bombing that wounded 77 American soldiers in Wardak province.

During the series of attacks, eight policemen and three civilians were killed along with 36 insurgents, Mr Mohammadi said.

He said: “One of the terrorists who has been arrested in Jalalabad has confessed that they were trained and equipped outside of our borders. He has confessed they were in one of the branches of the Haqqani network.”

Lutfullah Mashal, a spokesman for the Afghan intelligence service, said two suicide bombers and another insurgent arrested on Sunday on the west side of the city had confessed to being members of the Haqqani network. He said the three are suspected of plotting to kill vice-president Karim Khalili.

The capitals of Paktia, Logar and Nangarhar provinces in the east also came under attack on Sunday as suicide bombers tried to storm a Nato base, an airport and police installations there.

Abdul Rahman Mangal, deputy governor of Paktia province, said the Haqqanis were being blamed for the attack in Gardez, the provincial capital.

Mr Mangal said: “There’s nobody else who could have done it. Our intelligence department told us that the Haqqani network is behind this attack. The Haqqanis are close to Miram Shah [Pakistan] and from there, they can easily come to Paktia province.”

General Ghulam Sakhi Roogh Lawanay, police chief in Logar province, said investigators there were also convinced that the Haqqani network orchestrated the attack in Logar.

However, Afghan officials may have political motivations for blaming the Haqqanis.

Afghan and western officials are trying to coax the Taleban – who are not as closely linked with al-Qaeda as the Haqqanis – to negotiate a political resolution to the ten-year-old war. If the Haqqani faction is behind the attacks, it could be easier to sell the idea of making peace with the Taleban to sceptics.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai said the attacks were an “intelligence failure by us and especially Nato” that allowed the militants to enter the targeted cities, and called for a full investigation. However, he praised the Afghan security forces’ response.