KABUL, AFGHANISTAN | Afghan officials blamed a brazen series of weekend attacks on the Haqqani Network, saying Monday that fighters captured in the assault claimed they were affiliated with the insurgent faction tied to the Taliban and al Qaeda.
In addition, President Hamid Karzai said the attacks were an “intelligence failure by us and especially NATO” that allowed the militants to enter Kabul and other targeted cities, and called for a full investigation. However he praised the Afghan security forces’ response to the attacks.
The 18-hour offensive left 36 insurgents and 11 others dead and was the largest in Kabul since insurgents fired on the U.S. Embassy and NATO headquarters in September.
That attack also was blamed on the Haqqani Network, which commands the loyalties of an estimated 10,000 fighters and is considered one of the most lethal threats 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 members 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 Haqqanis, 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 organization.”
Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said in October the group acts as a “veritable arm” of the Pakistani intelligence agency - an accusation Islamabad denied.
Adm. Mullen accused the network of staging the Sept. 13 attack on the U.S. Embassy and NATO headquarters, as well as a truck bombing that wounded 77 American soldiers in Wardak province.
During the series of attacks that continued into Monday morning, eight policemen and three civilians were killed along with 36 insurgents, Mr. Mohammadi said.
“One of the terrorists who has been arrested in Jalalabad has confessed that they were trained and equipped outside of our borders,” Mr. Mohammadi told a news conference. “He has confessed that they were in one of the branches of the Haqqani network. We have his confession.”
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.
Apart from Kabul, the eastern capitals of Paktia, Logar and Nangarhar provinces also came under attack Sunday as suicide bombers tried to storm a NATO base, an airport and police installations there.
Afghan officials may have political motivations for pointing the finger at Haqqani.
Afghan and U.S. officials are trying to coax the Taliban fighters - who are not as closely linked with al Qaeda as the Haqqanis - to negotiate an end to the 10-year-old war. If the Haqqanis are behind the attacks, it could be easier to sell the idea of making peace with the Taliban to skeptics.
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