US INTELLiGENCE CHIEF BLAMES LET FOR MUMBAI ATTACKS

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washington,: US Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell has blamed the group Lashkar-e-Taiba for last week's deadly attacks in Mumbai.

"The same group that we believe is responsible for Mumbai had a similar attack in 2006 attack on a train and killed a similar number of people," said McConnell on Tuesday, speaking at Harvard University. "Go back to 2001 and it was an attack on the Parliament."

McConnell did not mention Lashkar-e-Taiba by name, but the group has fought Indian rule in divided Kashmir and is notorious for a deadly assault on the Indian Parliament in 2001 that pushed New Delhi and Islamabad to the brink of war.

It is the first time a US government official publicly fingers the group as being behind the deadly Mumbai attacks, though Washington has been dropping hints for days.

A US counter-terrorism official speaking on condition of anonymity said on Saturday that Lashkar-e-Taiba may have been responsible for the attacks.

US officials had warned India in October hotels and business centers in Mumbai would be targeted by attackers coming from the sea, according to US news media reports.

Indian intelligence officials intercepted a phone call on November 18 to an address in Pakistan used by the head of Lashkar-e-Taiba, revealing a possible attack from the sea, according to reports.

About 10 militants landed in rubber dinghies in Mumbai and wreaked havoc with automatic weapons and hand grenades, in an assault that killed at least 188 people and injured more than 300. The dead included 22 foreign nationals.




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