LAHORE: The February 18, 2010 killing of veteran Afghan Mujahideen leader Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani’s younger son in an American drone attack in North Waziristan has come as a major success for the Afghanistan-based US forces, which have conducted a record number of 20 drone strikes in the Waziristan region since January 1, in 2010.
According to well placed diplomatic circles in Islamabad, the ongoing wave of deadly drone attacks in the Pakistani tribal areas was largely motivated by the country’s refusal to undertake another military operation against the al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani militant network in the North Waziristan Agency, especially at a time when its armed forces are already busy in a military offensive against the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan network in the South Waziristan Agency.
The American and Pakistani authorities have already confirmed that Mohammed Haqqani, the younger son of Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani, and three others were killed when missiles struck a house on Thursday night in Dande Darpa Khel area of North Waziristan. However, it was not immediately known if Sirajuddin Haqqani, the elder son of Jalaluddin who currently leads the Haqqani network, was present at the house at the time it was struck, and whether he was hit by the drone attack or not.
Mohammed was the second son of the ageing Jalaluddin Haqqani to have been killed by the American forces after the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan. Earlier in 2008, another of his son, Omar Haqqani, died while fighting the US-led Allied forces in the Satto Kandao area of Paktia province in Afghanistan. He was reportedly traveling in a car after attending a funeral ceremony of one of their relatives in North Waziristan when he came under a missile attack by the US spy plane.
Following the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, like many other Afghans, Jalaluddin Haqqani also brought his family to Pakistan and settled in North Waziristan, which borders his native Khost province. The Thursday’s drone attack at the heart of the Haqqani network came close on the heels of a series of arrests of some senior Afghan Taliban leaders, including Mullah Mohammad Omar’s deputy, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, which is being described as the most severe blow to the extremist militia ,which is pitched against the US-led allied forces in Afghanistan since 2001.
Informed circles say the killing of Mohammed Haqqani, also a key figure in the Haqqani network, in the drone attack that was actually directed against his father and brother, would prove the American claims regarding the presence of the al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network in the Pakistani tribal areas.
Haqqani network is a separate militant group but still pledges allegiance to Mullah Omar, the fugitive Ameer of the Afghan Taliban and has a history of links to the Pakistani establishment since the days of Afghan Jihad.
The Americans have targeted the Haqqani network in Waziristan extensively since the dawn of 2010, especially since a suicide bomber killed seven senior CIA officers in the Khost area of Afghanistan on December 31, 2009. But the February 18 drone attack was the first one to have successfully targeted one of Jalaluddin’s sons.
While there are those in the Pakistani establishment who say the US drones are lately hitting their targets fruitfully due to Pakistani intelligence cooperation, diplomatic circles in Islamabad say Washington and Islamabad were not on the same page on the issue of targeting the Haqqani network after which the Obama administration had launched the ongoing wave of drone attacks targeting North Waziristan.
These circles said that while the Americans treat Sirajuddin Haqqani as an enemy, there are powerful circles in the Pakistani establishment, which still consider him as a strategic asset and a possible ally in Afghanistan after the likely exit of the Americans. Pakistan has recently been under tremendous US pressure to act against the Haqqani network in North Waziristan. On January 21, 2010, American Defence Secretary Robert Gates had stated in Islamabad that he would explore a possible Pakistani plan to move against the Haqqani network in North Waziristan later this year.
Gates said he would ask the Pakistani leaders about plans to broaden their campaign to North Waziristan, a bastion of al-Qaeda and the Haqqani network, known for attacking US and Nato troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. But the very next day, the official spokesman of the Pakistan Army Maj Gen Athar Abbas stated that Pakistan’s “over-stretched” armed forces had no plans for undertaking any fresh anti-militant operations in 2010. This added a surprising new element to the situation and caused tension in Islamabad’s uneasy relations with Washington.
In fact, his statement on the day Robert Gates arrived in Pakistan was seen as a snub to the Obama administration, which is pushing Islamabad to take action against all the militants, particularly the Afghan Taliban and their Haqqani network, and everywhere in the tribal borderlands. Athar Abbas argued that the Pakistan Army was not in a position to open new fronts as it was still busy operating in South Waziristan and in Swat and the rest of the Malakand region.
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