U.S. BLAMES PAKISTAN-BASED GROUP FOR ATTACK ON EMBASSY IN KABUL

[Instead, North Waziristan has become a main target of American drone strikes conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency. Some military officials say the Haqqanis have not been hit as hard as they might have been for fear of worsening relations with Pakistan’s intelligence agency, so close are its ties to the network. The Pakistan military has done its best to shut down the drone campaign as relations with the United States have soured after the killing of Osama bin Laden by American commandos operating deep inside Pakistan.]

By Jack Healy And Alissa J. Rubin

Kuni Takahashi for The New York Times

Afghan policeman stood over the body of an insurgent at the U.S. Embassy 

in Kabul on Wednesday. More Photos »

KABUL, Afghanistan — Raising the death toll sharply, American and Afghan officials said Wednesday that the complexity and execution of the siege of the American Embassy and NATO’s headquarters in Kabul bore the hallmarks of a militant group based in Pakistan that has become one of the American military’s most implacable foes.

Gen. John R. Allen, the NATO commander here, said 16 people had been killed in the attack — 5 Afghan police officers and 11 civilians, including at least 6 children — double the number reported on Tuesday.

The militant group that he and other officials blamed for the attack, the Haqqani network, is a crucial ally of Al Qaeda in the Pakistani border region and has been a longtime asset of Pakistan’s military and intelligence services in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s military chiefs have resisted American pressure to go after the Haqqanis, whose primary base is in North Waziristan, part of Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Instead, North Waziristan has become a main target of American drone strikes conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency. Some military officials say the Haqqanis have not been hit as hard as they might have been for fear of worsening relations with Pakistan’s intelligence agency, so close are its ties to the network. The Pakistan military has done its best to shut down the drone campaign as relations with the United States have soured after the killing of Osama bin Laden by American commandos operating deep inside Pakistan.

The Haqqanis have been blamed for high-profile attacks in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan, including the bombing of the Indian Embassy in 2008, which killed 54 people. Afterward, American intelligence officials confronted their Pakistani counterparts with evidence that Haqqani fighters had received support and direction from Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, or ISI.

Hallmarks of attacks linked to the Haqqani network include multiple fighters, targets that are often symbols of the Afghan government and their Western backers, careful planning, and, often, instructions delivered by telephone as the attackers carry out their mission.

“The Haqqanis have been attacking Kabul for a long time because Kabul for so much of this country represents not just the spiritual heartland of this country, it represents the future,” General Allen said at a briefing.

He acknowledged that the insurgents had scored a propaganda victory with the attack, which paralyzed central Kabul, bogged down security forces for hours, and illustrated how the militants still have the ability and the will to attack some of the capital’s most heavily guarded areas.

With the United States and other NATO members preparing to withdraw most of their troops by the end of 2014, the attack also underlined fears that the Afghan security forces would not be able to prevent high-profile violence and secure the country.

An uneasy veneer of calm settled on Kabul on Wednesday as security forces finished clearing the unfinished concrete high-rise from which at least six militants shot rocket-propelled grenades and sprayed bullets into one of the capital’s most heavily secured districts. The government declared the assault to be over at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, about 19 hours after the first explosions.

All of the attackers inside the building were killed, as were at least three suicide bombers who hit targets elsewhere in the city.

Six coalition soldiers were also wounded, three by rocket-propelled grenades that landed in a military installation near NATO headquarters and another three who were injured during the overnight operation to clear the building, said a NATO spokesman, Lt. Col. Jimmie E. Cummings Jr.

Still, General Allen and other American military and diplomatic officials said that the attack had no military significance, and that no Western soldiers or civilians had been killed.

“Afghanistan is a little like a boxer,” said Simon Gass, the senior civilian NATO representative in Afghanistan. “It is going to take some blows along the way, but it will keep coming forward, and it will prevail over its enemy.”

Officials said the attack had actually demonstrated the growing capability of Afghan security forces. They said Afghan Army and police units responded quickly and ably and worked methodically to clear the high-rise, each floor a treacherous warren of small rooms and potential hiding places for attackers.

The American ambassador, Ryan C. Crocker, played down the attack as “harassment” that had made for a hard day at the embassy but was not a game-changer.

“This really is not a very big deal,” Mr. Crocker said. “If that’s the best they can do, you know, I think it’s actually a statement of their weakness.”

Mr. Crocker indicated that such attacks were likely to continue because the insurgency had strong support in Pakistan.

“You can’t keep every evildoer out of the city,” Mr. Crocker said. “You do have an insurgency that’s going on in the country. It’s particularly hard to do when you have safe havens. And the information available to us is that these attackers, like those who carried out the bombing in Wardak are part of the Haqqani network,” he added, referring to a truck bombing on Sunday.

A senior military official in Washington agreed with that assessment. “Yes, we think HQN led,” he said, using the shorthand for the Haqqani network, “but also probably included other groups.”

Dozens of Afghans gathered outside the scene of the siege on Wednesday morning to watch the police remove the attackers’ bodies. Though the streets were once again open and vendors were grilling meat and corn in the shadow of the building, there remained a sense of insecurity among men who said they neither supported the insurgents’ attacks nor trusted the police to keep them safe.

“We are mad at both,” said Farid Hotak. “At the Taliban for doing these types of attacks, and at the government for failing to prevent them.” Mr. Hotak, who lives in an apartment across the street, seethed at the memory of girls crying and running for cover. “Fear and panic rules,” he said.

None of the attackers appeared to be older than 25, and one looked even younger. The fighters had enough ammunition to keep shooting until the final attacker was killed on Wednesday and appeared to have bottled water and fruit juice, police officers said.

The attackers wore sandals and the traditional Afghan trousers and shirts known as shalwar kameez. The Interior Ministry suggested that they might have tried to conceal themselves by dressing as women, saying they had found burqas, the face-covering robes worn by many Afghan women.

The youngest fighter had tried to surrender, but the others would not let him, said Sediq Sediqi, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.

An Afghan Army sergeant, Mohammed Daoud, who had spent the previous afternoon shooting at the attackers from a copse of trees across the road, returned on Wednesday with dozens of other security officers to inspect the bloody remnants of the attack and look at the bodies. He blamed the presence of Western forces for the assault but said he had no idea about how the police and soldiers could prevent the next one.

“It’s so difficult to stop these suicide bombers,” Sergeant Daoud said. “Ordinary people have a better chance of stopping them than Afghan security forces.”

Reporting was contributed by Ray Rivera, Sangar Rahimi and Abdul Waheed Wafa from Kabul, and Eric Schmitt from Washington.

@ The New York Times