By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The CIA has confronted senior Pakistani officials with evidence showing that members of the country's spy service have deepened their ties with some militant groups responsible for a surge of violence in Afghanistan, possibly including the suicide bombing this month of the Indian Embassy in Kabul, The New York Times reported.
A top CIA official traveled to Islamabad this month with new information about ties between Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency and militants operating in Pakistan's tribal areas, the newspaper said on its Web site late Tuesday. Its sources were American military and intelligence officials it did not identify.
The Times said the CIA assessment pointed to links between the ISI and the militant network led by Jalaluddin Haqqani, which American officials believe maintains close ties to senior figures of al-Qaida in Pakistan's tribal areas.
The CIA has depended heavily on the ISI for information about militants in Pakistan despite long-standing concerns about divided loyalties within the Pakistani spy service, which had close relations with the Taliban in Afghanistan before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US.