LONDON — An al-Qaida ally targeted this week’s toplevel international conference on Afghanistan’s future, the U.S. special envoy to the region said Friday.
The Haqqani network, which directs operations against U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan from safe havens in Pakistan, is a “real problem,” Richard Holbrooke, special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, said in London.
The network, believed to be the Taliban faction with the closest ties to al-Qaida, has attacked the Indian Embassy and tried to destroy a national peace conference last month with rocket attacks, he said. In addition, “we know they were targeting the building we were meeting in a few days ago inKabul, with the largest group of foreign leaders assembled in Kabul since the 1970s,” he said.
He did not specify how the Tuesday meeting, which included Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Holbrooke and British Foreign Secretary William Hague among the representatives of about 60 countries, was targeted. A huge security crackdown prevented the Taliban from launching any major attacks during the conference.
Holbrooke’s comments came as the U.S. presses for tougher action against the Haqqani network, and the day after the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned three insurgent leaders, including an emissary for the group. The U.S. has said Islamabad’s reluctance to move into the group’s base in North Waziristan is hampering the Afghan war effort.
Though other militant groups operate from North Waziristan on Pakistan’s northwest frontier, dealing specifically with the Haqqani group is the most pressing task, Holbrooke said.
“Everyone talks about North Waziristan, but what we talk about is the Haqqani network,” Holbrooke said.
The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday sanctioned three insurgent leaders, including Nasiruddin Haqqani, anemissary for the Haqqani network and brother of Sirajuddin Haqqani, who leads the group with his father, Jalaluddin.
Holbrooke did not elaborate on whether he believed enough was currently being done by Pakistan to take on the network but insisted Islamabad has a crucial role in ending the Afghanistan conflict.
The envoy said ties between Pakistan and the Westhad greatly improved in recent months, bringing “much more cooperation at every level” in dealing with the Afghan conflict.
Holbrooke insisted that the U.S. has no current role in tentative efforts on reconciliation between Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government and Taliban militants, seen by many analysts as a precondition for a political solution tothe war.
In Afghanistan, a bomb exploded Friday inside a mosque in the eastern part of the country, seriously wounding a candidate in coming parliamentary elections and at least 16 other people, an official said.
Information for this article was contributed by Amir Shah and Mirwais Khan of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 07/24/2010