NATO extending defenses of Kabul

Suicide bombing fatal to 17 was likely tied to Haqqanis, diplomat says

Afghans gather Sunday at the site of Saturday’s suicide car bombing in Kabul.
Afghans gather Sunday at the site of Saturday’s suicide car bombing in Kabul.

— The weekend suicide bombing of a NATO convoy that killed 17 people in Kabul has added urgency to the U.S.-led coalition’s work to expand a security bubble around the Afghan capital.

With most of the attacks in Kabul blamed on the Pakistan-based Haqqani network, the latest attack reinforced U.S. and Afghan demands that Islamabad do more to curb militant activity and sanctuaries on its territory.

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While there is no specific information linking Saturday’s convoy attack to the Haqqani network, investigators say they soon will have evidence the bombing was “Haqqani-related,” a western diplomat said Sunday. The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation, said it was “very possible” the attack was the work of Haqqani fighters, who have ties to both al-Qaida and the Taliban.

In the midday assault, a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle packed with explosives into an armored coalition bus traveling in the southwest end of the city. Heavily armored military vehicles also were in the convoy, but the bomber targeted the bus, which was carrying troops and civilian contractors.

The Haqqanis were the specific focus of two military operations this month that involved tens of thousands of Afghan and NATO troops. They were conducted over nine days in Kabul province; Wardak, Logar and Ghazni provinces south and west of the capital; and Paktia, Paktika and Khost provinces along the border. More than 200 insurgents were killed or captured. At least 20 of them had ties to the Haqqani group, including 10 identified as leaders of the network.

Marine Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said in a recent interview that the operations against the Haqqanis were conducted in preparation for next year’s plan to step up operations to keep insurgents from infiltrating across the Pakistani border and into the capital, especially from the south.

“The campaign plan is to extend operations down in that area — pretty significantly — to secure the orbital districts around Kabul and push that security zone out,” Allen said.

“The overarching campaign plan for next year is going to see us consolidate our holdings in the south, conduct operations in the east to expand the security zone around Kabul and then connect the two,” he said. That also would facilitate travel along a highway that connects Kabul with southern Afghanistan, he said.

In Saturday’s attack, the force of the explosion knocked the bus on its side and ignited a large fire that sent heavy black smoke into the air. Seventeen people died — five NATO service members, including one Canadian soldier; eight civilian contractors, including two from Britain; and four Afghans, including a policeman.

A U.S. defense official initially said all the foreigners killed were American, but that could not be confirmed. NATO does not disclose the nationalities of those killed.

Fluor Corp., a company based in Irving, Texas, that employs contractors in Afghanistan, confirmed Sunday that some of its employees, including the two British, were killed in the attack. Their names were not being released out of respect for their families, said Keith Stephens, a company representative.

Officials in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province said a suicide car bomb killed three guards this morning near a United Nations agency guesthouse and the office of an international nongovernmental organization.

Faisal Khan, head of the Kandahar Media Office, said that after the bomber set off the explosives near the International Relief Development organization’s office early today, several other insurgents rushed through and seized control of an animal clinic.

Kandahar police chief Gen. Abdul Razzaq said NATO and Afghan forces were exchanging fire with the insurgents.

In Pakistan on Sunday, cricket legend and opposition politician Imran Khan railed against the government and its alliance with the U.S. before more than 100,000 flag-waving supporters.

Khan, 58, entered politics 15 years ago when he founded Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or the Movement for Justice Party. A poll conducted by the U.S.-based Pew Research Center in June found Khan, the captain of Pakistan’s 1992 world champion cricket team, to be the most popular political figure in the country.

Information for this article was contributed by Asif Shahzad, Sebastian Abbot, Rasool Dawar, Tarek El-Tablawy and Rahim Faiez of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 10/31/2011

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