US agencies are looking into possible similarities between the September 13 attacks on the US and NATO targets in Afghanistan, and the November 2008 attack by militants on civilian targets in Mumbai.
Current and former US counterterrorism officials told Reuters the comparison between the two attacks was being made as part of the US government’s examination of evidence linking the Kabul attack to the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI). One point under examination is how phone calls, allegedly to the ISI contacts back in Pakistan, were made by militants during the course of both attacks.
There are similarities between the two attacks that suggest an ultra-secret unit of the ISI, known as the “S” branch, carried out both of them, said Bruce Riedel, a former senior CIA analyst who has advised US President Barack Obama on Afghanistan policy. Top Pakistani officials have publicly denied the US accusations of the ISI involvement and warned Washington it risked losing an ally in South Asia.
On Thursday, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a congressional hearing that the Kabul attacks on the US embassy and NATO headquarters were carried out by operatives of the Haqqani network. Mullen described the Haqqani network as a “veritable arm” of ISI and said the group also carried out a Sept. 10 truck bomb attack in Afghanistan with the “support” of the ISI. On Thursday, Riedel told Reuters the US had evidence the attackers in Kabul telephoned people connected with the ISI before and during their attack.
Earlier in the week, US officials privately informed senior Pakistani officials visiting the US that Washington had evidence linking the ISI to the Kabul attacks, but declined Pakistani requests to produce the evidence, said a person familiar with discussions between the officials. Information gathered by US and Indian security and intelligence agencies in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, in which 166 people died, indicated they were carried out by operatives of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba.
David Headley, an American militant who allegedly helped LT scope out targets in Mumbai, gave a lengthy statement to Indian government investigators alleging contacts between the LT and the ISI. “According to Headley every big action of the LT is done in close coordination with the ISI,” India’s National Investigation Agency concluded. The Mumbai attackers traveled to India by boat and laid siege for several days to high-profile civilian targets, including two luxury hotels, a railway station and a Jewish community centre.
By contrast, the recent attacks in Kabul were land-based and directed at official targets associated with the US and NATO.
