This is a a significant update to the devastating attack on Kabul that happened last week in that Afghan security forces and intelligence officials now are convinced that it was an al Qaeda coordinated attack. The apparent ringleader of the operation has been arrested and has confessed.
From the report at Breitbart:
Now, this attack had all the earmarks of an al Qaeda planned attack - mulitple attack points and the use of vehicle-borne bombs but the disturbing aspect of all of this is that al Qaeda's influence in the plotting of this attack could spell some serious consequences for our operations in Afghanistan. Let's be real - al Qaeda in Iraq's suicide attack strategies in Baghdad and other locations in the earlier days of the the Iraq War were substantial - they were certainly winning. It wasn't until the Surge was instituted where U.S. forces were able to cut off the inroads into Baghdad from the outer permiter where al Qaeda was starting their operations, did the U.S. start to take control.
The problem with Afghanistan is the size and terrain. With al Qaeda directing such attacks, they literally could be anywhere in the foothills and outside of the major cities of Kabul and Kandahar and as we saw in this Kabul attack, they met no resistance until the attack was half over.
When you combine the Taliban willingness to attack anywhere, anytime against all odds with the cunning of al Qaeda strategists, you have a recipe for bad news.
Of course, it doesn't help with the policymakers and strategists of ours in Washington, D.C. all say that there aren't any al Qaeda IN Afghanistan.
From the report at Breitbart:
Afghan authorities have arrested the ringleader of a group that staged a brazen attack in Kabul and now believe the assault was coordinated by al-Qaida, an official said Sunday.
Gen. Nahim Baluch, the deputy director of Afghanistan's intelligence service, said that the ringleader—whom he did not name—and several other suspects confessed to their role in the Jan. 18 attack that paralyzed the Afghan capital and left 12 people dead, including seven militants.
Afghan officials have previously said that the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based Taliban faction with close ties to al-Qaida, was behind the assault. Baluch said Sunday that al-Qaida was increasingly directing complex attacks carried out by its close partners.
Now, this attack had all the earmarks of an al Qaeda planned attack - mulitple attack points and the use of vehicle-borne bombs but the disturbing aspect of all of this is that al Qaeda's influence in the plotting of this attack could spell some serious consequences for our operations in Afghanistan. Let's be real - al Qaeda in Iraq's suicide attack strategies in Baghdad and other locations in the earlier days of the the Iraq War were substantial - they were certainly winning. It wasn't until the Surge was instituted where U.S. forces were able to cut off the inroads into Baghdad from the outer permiter where al Qaeda was starting their operations, did the U.S. start to take control.
The problem with Afghanistan is the size and terrain. With al Qaeda directing such attacks, they literally could be anywhere in the foothills and outside of the major cities of Kabul and Kandahar and as we saw in this Kabul attack, they met no resistance until the attack was half over.
When you combine the Taliban willingness to attack anywhere, anytime against all odds with the cunning of al Qaeda strategists, you have a recipe for bad news.
Of course, it doesn't help with the policymakers and strategists of ours in Washington, D.C. all say that there aren't any al Qaeda IN Afghanistan.
Al-Qaida-linked suspects arrested for Kabul attack
KABUL (AP) - Afghan authorities have arrested the ringleader of a group that staged a brazen attack in Kabul and now believe the assault was coordinated by al-Qaida, an official said Sunday.
Gen. Nahim Baluch, the deputy director of Afghanistan's intelligence service, said that the ringleader—whom he did not name—and several other suspects confessed to their role in the Jan. 18 attack that paralyzed the Afghan capital and left 12 people dead, including seven militants.
"All of them have links with al-Qaida," Baluch said of the suspects.
Afghan officials have previously said that the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based Taliban faction with close ties to al-Qaida, was behind the assault. Baluch said Sunday that al-Qaida was increasingly directing complex attacks carried out by its close partners.
Analysts and U.S. counterterrorism officials have said al-Qaida leaders have deepened and solidified their relationship with the Taliban and other homegrown militant groups that operate along the porous Afghan-Pakistan border.
Baluch said ammunition and weapons had been seized from the ringleader's house along with paint that he said had been used to disguise an explosives-packed vehicle as an ambulance.
The driver of the fake ambulance blew himself up at a police checkpoint as gunbattles were raging elsewhere in the area.
Baluch spoke at a press conference to explain the government ban on ammonium nitrate, a chemical compound found in fertilizer and often used to make bombs.
He said ammonium nitrate was used in the Jan. 18 attacks as well as an ambush of a guest house in Kabul that killed at least 11 people, including five U.N. staff.
Baluch also claimed that militants in the southern province of Helmand were packing 60 large containers per day with the explosives for use in suicide bombs, blowing up bridges and other attacks.
The Afghan government announced Friday that it was banning the use, production, storage, purchase or sale of ammonium nitrate, which also was used in the devastating 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
2 comments:
Isn't this where the administration speaks up and says there are probably no more than 120 al qaeda terrorists left in Afghanistan ?
Yeah Shark,
The same administration that said unemployment wouldn't go above 8 percent. The same administration that said all security systems "worked" on 12/25/09.
The clueless are in charge.
:Holger Danske
Post a Comment