US agencies are looking into possible similarities between the September 13 attacks on US and Nato targets in Afghanistan, and the November 2008 attack by militants on civilian targets in Mumbai, India. Current and former US counterterrorism officials told Reuters the comparison between the two attacks was being made as part of the US government's examination of evidence linking the Kabul attack.
One point under examination is how phone calls, allegedly to ISI contacts back in Pakistan, were made by militants during the course of both attacks. There are similarities between the two attacks that suggest an ultra-secret unit of ISI, known as "S" branch, carried out both of them, said Bruce Riedel, a former senior CIA analyst who has advised President Barack Obama on Afghanistan policy.
Top Pakistani officials have publicly denied the US accusations of ISI involvement and warned Washington it risked losing an ally in South Asia. On Thursday, Riedel told Reuters the United States had evidence the attackers in Kabul telephoned people connected with ISI before and during their attack.
Earlier in the week, US officials privately informed senior Pakistani officials visiting the United States that Washington had evidence linking ISI to the Kabul attacks, but declined Pakistani requests to produce the evidence, said a person familiar with discussions between the officials.
Information gathered by US and Indian security and intelligence agencies in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, in which 166 people died, indicated they were carried out by operatives of Lashkar-e-Taiba, or LeT. David Headley, an American militant who allegedly helped LeT scope out targets in Mumbai, gave a lengthy statement to Indian government investigators alleging contacts between LeT and ISI. "According to Headley every big action of LeT is done in close co-ordination with ISI," India's National Investigation Agency alleged.
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