The dust is finally starting to settle in Kabul, Afghanistan after NATO and Afghan forces were able to contain a well-coordinated and brazen attack by insurgents in its capital and three other cities.
The 18-hour battle engulfed several neighborhoods and buildings near the Afghan parliament, leaving a reported 38 insurgents, nine Afghan forces, and several civilians dead. Early Monday the Associated Press reported a captured militant confessed that the Haqqani network—which has ties to the Taliban, al-Qaida, and Pakistan—coordinated the attacks.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the assault but also criticized what he called an “intelligence failure” by NATO forces.
Some officials hailed the low count of civilian deaths and Afghan force-led ground battle as proof that local authorities were prepared for a U.S. withdrawal. But the bold attack on Afghanistan’s capital, after a decade of war, also showed a continuing battle for even the country’s most basic strategic strongholds.
