Taliban take responsibility for Indian embassy bombing in Kabul; court says Dow Jones defamed Singapore's founder; Pakistan rejects US aid; Nigeria's MEND to resume attacks; and more

Top of the Agenda: Attack on Kabul's Indian Embassy while rethinking U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan

A suicide bomber attacked India's embassy (Quqnoos) in a fortified section of Kabul Thursday morning, killing at least seventeen and wounding eighty-three others. The attack was the second on Kabul's Indian embassy in the past two years. In July 2008, it was the scene of the deadliest attack in the city since the war's start in 2001.

The Taliban took responsibility for the attack today. The Washington Post reports the Taliban was also connected to the 2008 Indian embassy bombing. U.S. authorities also implicated members of the Pakistani intelligence agency in that earlier bombing.

The attack today comes as U.S. President Barack Obama and his advisers are rethinking the U.S. military approach in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Robert Gates forwarded a request (WSJ) for more troops to Obama. The document outlines options ranging up to the addition of forty thousand more troops to the 68,000 already in Afghanistan.

Analysis

A Kabul Press op-ed asks why no Afghans were invited to partake in the presidential meetings that discuss the future of Afghanistan, as U.S. military strategy in the country is being reassessed.

A policy review from Brookings' Jason Campbell, Michael O'Hanlon and Jeremy Shapiro considers ways to assess progress and to measure whether the United States and its NATO allies are winning the war in Afghanistan. They say in Afghanistan, "metrics are probably most important for evaluating efforts at state-building," and emphasize the importance of quantitative data.

On CFR.org, six analysts offer views on how Obama should respond to calls for more troops to carry out U.S. counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan.

Background

Reuters has a Q&A on India's role in Afghanistan.

PACIFIC RIM: Singapore’s Leaders Claim Slander

Singapore's Court of Appeal ruled that the Dow Jones publication the Far Eastern Economic Review defamed the country's founder (BBC), Lee Kuan Yew, and his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in a 2006 article that interviewed an opposition party leader about the country's ruling party.

ELSEWHERE:

- Pakistan rejects U.S. aid bill.
- U.S. deficit hits record high.
- Nigeria's MEND to resume attacks.

This is an excerpt of the CFR.org Daily News Brief. The full version is available on CFR.org