The Haqqani network in eastern Afghanistan is the biggest foe the U.S. and its allies face in that country. Manba al-Jihad, a media arm of the Taliban branch, just released a video of some of its forces in training (edited and posted to YouTube by the private SITE Intelligence Group). Allegedly, it shows some of the militants who attacked the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul last summer.
The Haqqani network “acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan’s Internal Services Intelligence agency,” Adm. Mike Mullen said Sept. 22 just before stepping down as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “With ISI support, Haqqani operatives plan and conducted that truck bomb attack, as well as the assault on our embassy. We also have credible intelligence that they were behind the June 28th attack on the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul and a host of other smaller but effective operations. In choosing to use violent extremism as an instrument of policy, the government of Pakistan, and most especially the Pakistani army and ISI, jeopardizes not only the prospect of our strategic partnership but Pakistan’s opportunity to be a respected nation with legitimate regional influence.”
