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Top Haqqani commander killed in Pak drone strikes

25 August 2012

Press Trust of India  

WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD, 25 AUG: Badruddin Haqqani, the key operational commander of the Al Qaida linked Haqqani network, and top Pakistani Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah are believed to have been killed in US drone and air strikes in the tribal region of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Badruddin, the son of Afghan warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani, is ranked as a deputy to his elder brother and the network's chief Sirajuddin and was believed to be killed in one of the five volleys of drone strikes in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan since 18 August.

Four of the missiles hit took place in Shawal Valley, considered to be traditional area of operations of Haqqani network in North Waziristan, and US reports said he may have been killed in the 21 August strike near Miranshah.

The wave of attacks drew strongest protest from Islamabad in recent years when a senior US diplomat was summoned by the foreign ministry to lodge their Opposition to the attacks. Badruddin, thought to be in his mid-30s, was a member of the Miranshah Shura Council, one of the Afghan Taliban's four regional commands, which controls all activities of the militant group in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Senior US officials were quoted by the New York Times as saying that they had strong indications that Badruddin, the key commander of the Haqqani network which is responsible for most of the spectacular assaults on American bases and Afghan cities in recent years, was killed in a drone strike Meanwhile, the coalition forces in Afghanistan said that Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan leader Mullah Dadullah was among 20 militants killed in a “precision airstrike in Shigal wa Sheltan district (of) Kunar province yesterday.”

According to the statement, Dadullah, whose real name is Maulana Mohammad Jamaluddin, was made the commander of Taliban in Pakistan's Bajaur Agency in 2010. He fled to Afghanistan to escape an operation launched by the Pakistan Army. His deputy Shakir too was killed in the air strike.

Badruddin is one of the nine Haqqani family members to have been designated by the USA as global terrorists. His brother Sirajuddin is the overall leader of the Miramshah Shura. Siraj was designated by the US state department as a terrorist in March 2008; and in March 2009, the state department put out a bounty of US$ 5 million for information leading to his capture.

Giving details about the operation, American Intelligence officials indicated to the Long War journal yesterday that the remotely piloted Predators and Reapers were targeting an “important Jihadi leader” in the region but his name was not disclosed. “There are indications that Haqqani has met his demise,” a senior US official said in Washington yesterday.

He said officials were waiting to sift through evidence, including information on jihadist websites, before they could be certain that Haqqani had been killed. The report said their caution stemmed from previous erroneous claims by American and Pakistani officials about militant deaths in Waziristan, a difficult place to get reliable information. But if confirmed, Haqqani's death would be a “major benefit to the military coalition in Afghanistan.”

“Badruddin has been at the centre of coalition attacks in Afghanistan as well as mischief in Pakistan,” said the official. The Haqqani network has been blamed for some of the most spectacular assaults on US bases and Afghan cities in recent years.

By Friday evening, reports of Badruddin Haqqani's death were circulating in Pakistan's tribal belt. In Washington, the White House and the CIA, which carries out drone strikes in Pakistan, declined to comment. The latest string of drone attacks, most of them carried out in Shawal area of North Waziristan Agency, has renewed tensions between Pakistan and the USA.