Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06KABUL265
2006-01-18 10:27:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Kabul
Cable title:  

PRT/KHOST: BOMBINGS IN KHOST TARGET CIVILIANS; NEW

Tags:  PGOV PREL PTER 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KABUL 000265

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/15/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER
SUBJECT: PRT/KHOST: BOMBINGS IN KHOST TARGET CIVILIANS; NEW
TACTIC AIMED AT "ANTI-ISLAMIC" ACTIVITIES

REF: ISLAMABAD 0498

Classified By: A/DCM ANGUS SIMMONS FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D)

1 C) Summary: Two blasts ripped through shops in downtown
Khost on January 14, killing three and wounding 38. The
attacks, coming just after the Eid holiday, seem to have
targeted a gambling hall and a shop selling DVDs in the Khost
Bazaar area. Khost Governor Pathan is convinced that
bombings were the work of the Haqqani Network, headed by
Siraj Haqqani, operating out of Miram Shah in Pakistan,s
North Waziristan. He believes that Haqqani's group is under
increasing pressure from Pakistan,s military factions in
Waziristan and would use these attacks to strike fear and
burnish its image as a defender of Islam. End Summary.

Two Bombs Hit Khost Bazaar
--------------
2 C) A large explosion rocked the eastern Afghan city of
Khost at about 2:30 in the afternoon of January 14, followed
thirty minutes later by a second blast 300 meters away. The
first blast hit a gambling hall a block away from the
Governor,s Compound, killing three and injuring scores of
others. The number of people gathered in a very confined
space seems to have greatly increased the lethality of the
blast. Khost Governor Pathan told us that he thought that
the bomb was hidden in a basket of eggs left in the gambling
hall. Egg fights (knocking eggs together, man holding first
egg to break loses) are apparently a gambling event among
Pashtun men, and were condemned by conservative Muslims as
non-Islamic. At least one man died soon after the explosion
but up to six more were critically wounded.

3 C) Thirty minutes later a second explosion demolished a
shop 300 meters from the initial blast, still in the central
bazaar area. The second bomb (according to Pathan a rigged
propane tank left near shop by a customer) wounded two other
people. The shop was in an area of the bazaar that sold DVDs
and similar media.

Victims Strain Local Resources
--------------
4 C) The number of victims quickly overwhelmed Khost
Hospital and a dozen of the victims were transported to the
U.S. military hospital in FOB Salerno, several kilometers
north east of Khost City. According to the Khost Director of
Public Health, there were 40 casualties from the two attacks.
Khost hospital and two private clinics were able to
accommodate most with serious injuries but the worst cases
were sent to the U.S. military hospital for treatment. Most
of the victims appear to have been men in their thirties and
forties but one child was seriously burned.

Culprit: Haqqani Network
--------------
5 C) Governor Pathan, escorted by the Khost PRT Commander,
arrived at FOB Salerno in the early evening and visited the
wounded. He told Salerno,s Deputy Commander that he
believed that the attacks were the work of the Haqqani
network operating out of Pakistan. He said that recent
Pakistan actions in Haqqani,s current haven in Northern
Waziristan had made life very difficult and that Haqqani's
network was trying to sow fear in his home province of Khost.
He reported that there had been night letters and, he
believed, a serious threat of an attack during the
recently-completed Eid holiday. He said that he did not
believe the attacks were aimed at individuals, rather that
Haqqani was striking at targets that he could characterize as
anti-Islamic and indicative of the corrupting influence of
Western media on Afghanistan,s conservative brand of Islam.

6 C) The Haqqani Network, nominally headed by Jalaladdin
Haqqani but in practice commanded by his son, Siraj, is the
principal author of attacks against Coalition and Afghan
Security Forces in the Khost and northern Paktika Area. The
elder Haqqani was a mujaheddin commander in the Khost area
during the war against the Soviets and later was the
Taliban,s Minister of Tribal and Frontier Affairs. His
tribal connections through the powerful Zadran tribe allow
him to command influence in hill areas along Khost,s border
with Paktia province. He is strongly focused on regaining
influence in his home province. Some of the elder Haqqani,s
contemporaries have problems with Siraj,s leadership but he
still looks most in line to assume control of the network.

Comment
--------------
7 C) Haqqani in the past has directed his energies on
attacking Coalition and GOA targets, so the mass casualty
attack against innocent bystanders is unusual for Khost.
However, it appears to be consistent with what we understand
is an emerging pattern across the border in Pakistan,s North
and South Waziristan, where neo-Taliban have used violence to
enforce their views of sharia law, and are publicly posturing
as the restorers of order and Islamic values (reftel).
NORLAND