(AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Pro-Taliban warlord Sirajuddin Haqqani was behind the daring suicide and gun assault on the Afghan capital, Kabul on Wednesday, top Taliban sources told Adnkronos International (AKI). Pakistani and Arab groups were also behind the attacks, the sources said.After a deadly attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul in January 2008, Haqqani tried to copy the Laskhar-e-Toiba style Mumbai attacks with an assault on Afghan ministries that killed 28 people and injured many others, the sources claimed.
Sirajuddin, the son of legendary Afghan war hero, Jalaluddin Haqqani, who fought the Soviet occupation in the 1980s, has taken over his father's network and is known in Taliban circles as Kalifah (or successor).
Originally from the Afghan province of Khost, Sirajuddin is believed to be operating from Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan on the Afghan border.
He has recently expanded his network in the Afghan provinces of Khost, Paktia, Paktika and Ghazni, and established his network in the Afghan province of Kandahar.
Sirajuddin is known to have contacts within the Pakistan and Arab militant networks and and draws on their expertise for various terror attacks. NATO forces have placed a 200,000 dollar bounty on him.
Last year CIA predator drones carried out multiple attacks in North Waziristan in a bid to kill Haqqani and his elderly father Jalaluddin. Both survived the attacks but the women and the children belonging to the family of Jalaluddin Haqqani were killed and his religious school was completely destroyed.
Sirajuddin Haqqani runs an independent network of militants but like his father pledges his allegiance to Taliban leader Mullah Omar and is part of the Taliban's command structure.
Earlier on Thursday, the Taliban's al-Hamza Brigades were thought to have carried out the deadly attacks in the capital Kabul - according to messages posted to various jihadist websites and reportedly signed by the Taliban.
"Sixteen mujahadeen martyrs from the al-Hamza Brigades executed the Kabul operation on the orders of (Taliban leader) Mullah Omar," said the message.
Eight attackers died in the coordinated assault against government ministries in central Kabul, in which they used Kalishnikov rifles, grenades and explosive vests.
Twenty others were killed in the attack, which came on the eve of a visit by US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke.
Six people died in the bomb and gun attack on the Serena Hotel in January 2008. The hotel was hosting a Norwegian delegation at the time.