KABUL - The US ambassador to Afghanistan, blaming the Haqqani network for recent brazen attacks in Kabul and other eastern provinces, on Thursday said Pakistan should clamp down on the insurgent safe havens in the lawless tribal region of Miran Shah, the headquarters of north Wazisitan near the Afghan border.
The coordinated and near simultaneous attacks were carried out on Sunday and Monday in three locations in Kabul and other major cities in Logar, Nangarhar and Paktia provinces, leaving 36 attackers, 11 security men and four civilians dead. And, another 36 civilians and 42 security men wounded.
US ambassador Ryan C Crocker told a press conference in Kabul that the recent and previous such coordinated attacks had been carried out by the Haqqanis.
Calling the group a threat to security in Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US, he said there was no question that the Haqqani network was behind this week's attacks, adding Pakistan needs to do more to clamp down on the group's safe havens.
He said they knew where the leadership of the terror group lived and from where they planned their attacks. "They're in Miran Shah," the US envoy said in his rare strongest comments.
The Pakistan-based Haqqani network is believed allied with the Taliban and Al Qaeda and has been described by American officials as the most dangerous in the Afghan war. Crocket said they were pressing the Pakistanis very hard in this regard.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton earlier this week said there were indications that the Haqqanis were involved in the attacks on Afghan cities.
Crocker described the Haqqanis as "a group of killers, pure and simple," and said they may be a faction of the Afghan insurgency that is irreconcilable. He argued that the solution to the Haqqani problem would be found in Pakistan.
However, he said they were not going to start a war with Pakistan to resolve the matter, saying the Pakistanis had to take necessary action themselves to eliminate a threat not only to Afghanistan and the United States but also to Pakistan. (Pajhwok)