Hydrablog

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/world/asia/01kabul.html
November 1, 2009
Qaeda Had Role in Attack on U.N. Staff, Official Says
By DEXTER FILKINS [Afghanistan] [hydra] [began in Pakistan, but moved to Paksitan] [AfPak] [the rigged elections now have come to head with UN, US, others urging runoff-type solution] [apparently others have prevailed on Karzia to go through motions of democracy] [pretty dramatic attack on UN housing in Kabul] [the Obama administration trying to figure how to support this regime?] [recent attack on UN—now al Qaeda fingerprints?] [*]
KABUL, Afghanistan — The deadly suicide attack at a United Nations guesthouse here last week was a joint operation directed by an Afghan warlord based in the tribal areas of Pakistan and by an operative of Al Qaeda, the Afghan intelligence director said Saturday. [why now?] [suddenly in short time we’ve read of al Qaeda operatives and their passports and now their planning in UN attack] [what, if anything, does this presage?] [is al Qaeda trying to get back into the game?] [is the Obama administration’s agonizing over AfPak too tempting a target?] [I hope NSC folks are considering how tempting a target they are potentially offering to al Qaeda?] [*]
The attack was carried out by three men at dawn on Wednesday. Dressed as Afghan police officers, they went over the walls around the guesthouse and began shooting and attacking with grenades. They killed eight people, five of them foreigners who worked for the United Nations. [*]
The attackers wore suicide belts, but only one of them managed to detonate his explosives. The other two were shot and killed. [actually sounds more like locals] [*]
The attack could have been much more deadly, but United Nations guards and the Afghan police kept the attackers away from the other United Nations workers inside, security officials said.
The intelligence official, Amrullah Saleh, said at a news conference here that six Afghan suspects had been arrested, including an imam who had provided a hideaway for the attackers. He said the suspects had said that the three suicide attackers were all from the Swat Valley in Pakistan, a region under Taliban control earlier this year. [*]
Mr. Saleh said the operation was jointly directed. One group was the Haqqani network, a Taliban-affiliated organization named for its leaders: Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin. The group is based in North Waziristan, [and Paksitanis have had America going after same for months now?] [*] in the remote region that straddles Afghanistan’s eastern border. Jalaluddin Haqqani, a former minister in the Taliban government, rose to prominence as a commander in the war against the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
Mr. Saleh said the other leader was a Qaeda operative known as Ajmal, who fled to the Waziristan area. [*] He said Al Qaeda and the Haqqani network are thought to have cooperated in many attacks.
Correction: November 1, 2009
A previous version of this article gave an incorrect number for a group of Afghans arrested on suspicion of conducting a terrorist attack. Six were arrested, not eight. [**]
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company