17 Die in Kabul Blast

KABUL, Afghanistan — A car packed with explosives blew up beside the Indian Embassy on Thursday morning, leaving 17 people dead in what India’s foreign secretary said was a direct attack on the embassy compound, the second in two years.

The blast appeared to be similar in pattern to the earlier attack, in July 2008, in which a car bomber detonated at the embassy gates around the same time. American intelligence officials concluded within weeks that Pakistan's intelligence agency helped plan that attack.

Pakistan denied any involvement, but, India is Pakistan’s archrival, and militant groups once nurtured by Pakistan’s intelligence service have struck at Indian targets, most recently last year in Mumbai.

A Taliban spokesman claimed credit for the attack and said the embassy was the intended target. That recent history and the long simmering Indian-Pakistan conflict over possession of Kashmir had some Indian security analysts pointing Pakistan's way on Thursday.

Analysis

Whatever the reason, and whoever is behind this. has miscalculated. If this blast was the work of the Taliban alone, it will sting Pakistan into more attacks that are destined to wear the Taliban down and defeat it. If the Pakistani military and intelligence forces helped plan the attack then it will result in further sympathy for India and a stronger reaction from India's allies. The sad thing is that those killed and wounded were local Pakistani's, killed by their own. If this keeps up, the Taliban will find themselves totally isolated within the very community they expect to give it support.