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Friday, October 14, 2011
US strike kills Haqqani commander in Miranshah
MIRANSHAH: A US drone strike killed a logistics commander in the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network and three other militants in Pakistan near the Afghan border, officials said on Thursday. Covert CIA drones are the United States’ chief weapon against Taliban and al Qaeda militants.
The unmanned aircraft fired two missiles at a compound in Dandey Darpakhel village, about seven kilometres north of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal district. “Jamil Haqqani, an important Afghan commander of Haqqani network was the target and was killed,” a Pakistani security official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media.
A Pakistani intelligence official in Miranshah confirmed the killing and said Jamil was in his thirties. “He was working as a coordinator of the Haqqani network in North Waziristan,” the official said, adding the three other people killed in the strike were Haqqani’s fighters, guarding the commander in the compound. Officials said he was not a relative of Jalaluddin, the Afghan warlord who founded the Taliban faction, or his son Sirajuddin who now runs the network but that he was “very close to the top commanders including Sirajuddin”. The United States blames the Haqqanis for fuelling the 10-year insurgency in Afghanistan, attacking US-led NATO troops and working to destabilise the Western-backed government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Washington last month significantly stepped up demands on Islamabad to take action against the network and cut alleged ties to the group. US missiles have destroyed dozens of other Haqqani network compounds and a sprawling madrassa in 2008, killing dozens of fighters, officials say. Muhammad Haqqani, brother of Sirajuddin, was killed in a US drone attack in Dandey Darpakhel, the same North Waziristan village in February 2010. Around 30 US drone strikes have been reported in Pakistan since Navy SEALs attacked Osama bin Laden’s compound on May 2. afp
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk