The announcement by the Taliban that they were behind the attack in Kabul outside the Indian Embassy, and that the target was the embassy, reveals how the Taliban, or at least some of them, are clearly allied with Pakistan’s military interests. The Taliban otherwise have no reason to make the Indian Embassy a target. Their problem is not, in theory, India, unless in some way their viewpoint has been influenced by Pakistan’s larger geopolitical projects, which include Pakistan's war with India over Kashmir.
Note also that the Taliban have their own tally of the numbers killed. How did they get that? They must fully realize, every time a bomb is detonated in a crowded street, that civilians will be killed, perhaps many. Yet there seems to be no remorse that civilians were killed.
Without justifying those killed by American bombing we must note and condemn the murder of many innocent civilians – the number has to be in the thousands – who have been killed by suicide bombs. That the Taliban can give us the number means they know they are killing many civilians and apparently take it to be fitting to their agendas. Yes, as Karzai said, this was vicious and malicious abuse of many Afghan Muslims, in fact Afghan Muslims like the Taliban themselves, who were quite undeserving of this cruelty.
And if the Taliban are in fact carrying out Pakistan’s military projects in such a manner, what does it say of the readiness of Pakistan’s military leadership to allow, even encourage [and fund?], such criminal behavior?
This is another way to say that the issue to be resolved above all else is Pakistan's persistent struggle against India. Surge or no surge, the problem in Pakistan has to be resolved.
[Below is the CNN report on the event.] RLC
“Taliban claims responsibility for deadly suicide attack in Kabul KABUL, Afghanistan” (CNN) -- A suicide car bomb attack near the Indian Embassy killed at least 13 people and wounded 60 others on Thursday, officials said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying an Afghan national in a sports-utility vehicle carried out the attack.
Indian officials said the bomber had intended to strike the embassy.
"The suicide attack(er) ... attempted (to go) through one of the embassy gates," Vishnu Prakash, spokesman for India's external affairs ministry, told CNN on Thursday. "The embassy was the target."
The bomb went off at about 8:30 a.m. (4:00 a.m. GMT), just as offices and shops were opening for the day. …
There were conflicting figures on casualties from Thursday's attack. Hospital officials said 13 people were killed and 83 wounded -- including several in critical condition. Interior Ministry spokesman Ezmary Bashary said 17 were killed -- most of them civilians -- and 63 others were wounded.
The Taliban said the attack killed 35 people, including high-ranking Indian embassy officials, as well as international and Afghan police officers.
The embassy is in the center of Kabul, in a shop-lined street across from the Interior Ministry and several other government buildings.
The blast damaged a security checkpoint outside the embassy, said staffer J.P. Singh, but "there were no casualties on the Indian side." …
A statement from Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office called the blast an obvious assault on civilians and said "the perpetrators of this attack and those who planned it were vicious terrorists who killed innocent people for their malicious goals."
About a year ago, another suicide car bomb detonated outside the embassy. Among the 58 people killed in the July 7 attack were two Indian diplomats and 14 students at a nearby school. More than 100 were wounded in that blast.
Afghan and Indian officials accused Pakistan's spy agency of involvement in that attack. Pakistan denied the accusation. …
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