US suspects Pakistan link in Kabul attack

US officials say they are looking for evidence that directly links elements of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to this week’s assault on the US embassy and coalition headquarters in Kabul, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
The American suspicions are being partly fuelled by growing concerns that deteriorating bilateral relations and the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan may be pushing elements of ISI to more closely embrace the Haqqani network, the Taliban faction blamed for this week’s violence and a spate of attacks in and around Kabul. Neither the ISI nor the Pakistani military immediately responded to the US suspicions.
Pakistani government officials dismissed the suspicions as insulting and unfair. Top US officials, including Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, have already blamed the violence in Kabul on the Haqqani network, an Afghan insurgent faction whose history is intertwined with the ISI. The Pakistani spy agency has aided Haqqani network attacks in Kabul in past years, officials say. The US has warned the Pakistanis of stronger action if the group wasn’t reined in.
Afghan officials say mobile phones found on the slain attackers in this week’s commando-style raid in Kabul indicate they were in contact with people from “outside Afghanistan” — a typical Afghan way of indirectly pointing to Pakistan. Even so, US and Afghan officials have stopped short of publicly linking the attack to the ISI, as they did after past attacks in Kabul, such as the 2008 and 2009 bombings of the Indian embassy in Kabul.
What was different this time is the speed with which some US officials publicly said they were exploring ISI links, a sign of the growing frustration of US officials who in recent months have become more public in their finger-pointing at Pakistan for its coordination with militant groups. The possibility of ISI’s involvement was already being considered within hours of the attack’s conclusion when President Barack Obama’s National Security Council met on Wednesday, a US official told WSJ.
A senior US defence official told the paper there was currently no “actionable intelligence” linking the ISI to the attack. “But we’re looking for it — closely,” the official added. Meanwhile, US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter told Radio Pakistan there was evidence that the Haqqani network was behind the Kabul attack. “There is evidence linking the Haqqani Network to the Pakistan government. This is something that must stop,” he said.