KABUL — The U.S.-led military coalition Thursday blamed a notorious Pakistan-based terrorist group for this week’s spectacular assault on a hilltop Kabul hotel and said it had killed one of the group’s senior commanders, who was suspected of involvement in the attack.
The International Security Assistance Force didn’t say how it had determined that the Haqqani network was responsible for the siege Tuesday night at the Kabul Intercontinental Hotel, which left 10 civilians, two policemen and all nine assailants dead.
But it said a senior Haqqani commander, Ismail Khan, was suspected of providing material support for the assault and that he and several other Haqqani fighters had been killed Wednesday in a “precision airstrike,” only hours after Afghan police had retaken control of the hotel.
“The Haqqani network, in conjunction with Taliban operatives, was responsible for the Tuesday night attack on the Kabul Intercontinental Hotel which killed 12 people, including a provincial judge,” an ISAF statement said.
Faster security shift
Meanwhile, Afghan officials announced Thursday that they would assume security responsibilities in seven provinces and cities, including Kabul, beginning July 14.
The quick schedule for the transition — previous announcements had suggested it wouldn’t begin until later in July — seemed designed to put to rest any suggestion that Tuesday’s assault would delay the handover.
Dr. Ashraf Ghani, the chairman of the commission that’s overseeing the security hand over, said the July 14 transition would be largely ceremonial because Afghan forces had been gradually taking control in the seven areas since President Hamid Karzai announced the transition plan in March.
Stakes are high
Karzai and President Barack Obama have much at stake in the change in security responsibility. Karzai has argued for months that Afghan forces are strong enough to combat Taliban insurgents, and Obama announced last month an aggressive withdrawal plan that will see 33,000 American troops leave Afghanistan by the end of next year.
Both leaders have said they plan for the international military presence in Afghanistan to end in 2014, a deadline that would be in doubt if the Taliban were to mount a serious challenge to government control in areas where NATO forces are no longer present.
In violence Thursday, 20 Afghan civilians were killed when the bus they were riding hit a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, said Musa Rasoli, deputy police chief in Nimroz province.
Roadside bombs also killed two NATO service members in separate attacks in southern Afghanistan, raising to 64 the total number of foreign troop deaths in Afghanistan in June. Also, a man, woman and four children were killed when the car in which they were riding hit a roadside bomb in Marjah district of Helmand province, also in the south.
Elsewhere, militants captured two de-mining workers and seized five of their vehicles Thursday in Gardez, according to Afghan Technical Consultants, one of five Afghan nongovernmental organizations that receive direct funding from the United States to carry out mine-clearance operations.
