Posted on 09/24/2009 4:06:01 PM PDT by csvset
An unmanned US strike aircraft fired missiles at the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani Network in Pakistan’s Taliban-controlled tribal area of North Waziristan.
Three people were killed in the attack, which took place near a madrassa run by Jalaluddin Haqqani, the patriarch of the notorious Haqqani family, Reuters reported. The exact location of the strike has not been identified at this time, and no senior Taliban or al Qaeda leaders have been reported killed.
The Haqqanis run the Manba Ulom madrassa in the town of Danda Darpa Khel just outside of Miramshah in North Waziristan. The US has conducted several strikes on or near the madrassa since the fall of 2008.
Today's strike is the first since Sept. 14. There have been four US airstrikes in Pakistan this month; all have taken place in North Waziristan.
From June 14 to Aug. 20, 11 of the 12 strikes took place in South Waziristan. One of the attacks there killed Baitullah Mehsud, the former leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. Since then, five out of the past six strikes have taken place in North Waziristan.
The shift to North Waziristan indicates the US is now targeting the dangerous Haqqani Network and also al Qaeda's network, which operates in the agency. US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal would not comment on the shift in attacks from South to North Waziristan.
The US has killed four senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders in cross-border strikes in Pakistan since the beginning of August. Ilyas Kashmiri, the operations commander of the Harakat-ul-Jihad-Islami and the operations chief of Brigade 313, and Najmuddin Jalolov, the leader of the Islamic Jihad Group, a breakaway faction of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, were killed in a strike on Sept. 14. Mustafa al Jaziri, a senior military commander for al Qaeda who sits on al Qaeda's military shura, was killed in an attack on Sept. 8. And Baitullah Mehsud, the overall leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, was killed in a strike on Aug. 5.
The US has carried out 38 airstrikes inside Pakistan so far this year. In all of 2008, 36 strikes were carried out. Fourteen al Qaeda and Taliban leaders have been killed since the US ramped up cross -border attacks in 2008 [see LWJ report, "US airstrikes alone cannot defeat al Qaeda"].
The US is considering switching from a counterinsurgency-centric strategy aimed at defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan to a counterterrorism strategy targeting al Qaeda's network in Pakistan using unmanned airstrikes and covert operations by special operations commandos [see LWJ report, "Counterterrorism at the expense of counterinsurgency will doom Afghanistan and Pakistan: US officials"].
Background on Danda Darpa Khel and the Haqqani Network
The Manba Ulom madrassa was established by Jalaluddin Haqqani, the renowned mujahedeen commander who has close ties with Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar. In the 1980s, the madrassa was used to train mujahedeen to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. After the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the Haqqani family used the Manba Ulom madrassa as a training center and meeting place for senior al Qaeda leaders.
The Pakistani government closed the madrassa down in 2002, but it was reopened in 2004. Since then, Taliban fighters and members of al Qaeda's network have been known to take shelter in the madrassa compound.
The madrassa serves as the headquarters for the Haqqani Network, while the forward operating command center in Afghanistan is located in the village of Zambar in the northern Sabari district of Khost province, Afghanistan. The network is active in the Afghan provinces of Khost, Paktia, Paktika, Ghazni, Logar, Wardak, and Kabul, and provides support to Taliban networks in Kunar, Nangarhar, Helmand, and Kandahar provinces.
The Haqqanis have extensive links with al Qaeda and with Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, the Inter-Service Intelligence, or ISI. These relationships have allowed the Haqqani Network to survive and thrive in North Waziristan. The Haqqanis control large swaths of North Waziristan, and run a parallel administration with courts, recruiting centers, tax offices, and security forces.
Siraj Haqqani, a son of Jalaluddin, has risen in prominence over the past few years. He is believed to be the mastermind of the most deadly attacks inside Afghanistan and to be the senior military commander in eastern Afghanistan. The US military has described Siraj as the primary threat to security in eastern Afghanistan.
Siraj is considered dangerous not only for his ties with the Afghan Taliban, but also because of his connections with al Qaeda's central leadership, which extend all the way to Osama bin Laden. On March 25, the US Department of State put out a $5 million bounty for information leading to the capture of Siraj.
Open season in North and South Waziristan
Giddyup!
Take them out now, before somebody in DC decides that it’s on the negotiating table too.
Drone levels Afghan’s NW home; 9 dead
PESHAWAR (Agencies) - A US drone killed nine people after slamming into a house belonging to an Afghan in North Waziristan late Thursday, security officials said.
“A missile was fired from a US drone in Dandy Darpa Khel area,” one security official said on condition of anonymity. The area is considered a stronghold of the Taliban and Afghan former Soviet resistance commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, around five kilometres northwest of Miransha.
“Nine people were killed when a missile fired by a US drone hit the house of Afghan national Ahmad Afghani,” a security official said. Another intelligence official confirmed the same details.
The identities of the dead were not known. The missile struck a house near a religious school run by Jalaluddin Haqqani in the North Waziristan region, intelligence agency officials said.
There were unconfirmed reports that one of Haqqani’s sons is called Ahmad. “We are investigating whether it was the son or not,” a security official said on condition of anonymity.
The building acted as an office where militants would come to receive orders and rest between bouts of fighting across the border in Afghanistan, local residents and intelligence officials said.
It was not immediately clear whether Ahmad Afghani was present at the time of the attack.
The Haqqani network is a powerful group closely linked to Al-Qaeda and known for its ruthless and sophisticated attacks, including an assassination attempt on Afghan President Hamid Karzai in 2008.
US drone attack kills 10 in Pakistan: officials
A US 'Predator' drone passes overhead at a forward operating base near Kandahar
in January 2009. A US drone attacked an office operated by an Afghan radical on Thursday,
killing 10 suspected militants in Pakistan's tribal belt near the border with Afghanistan,
officials said. (AFP/File/Joel Saget)
Getting the job done....excellent.
You mean...
We're sending Al Gore over there to TALK them to death?
Keeps him out of *our* hair. /sarc>
Cheers!
Hopefully some of the expected targets where taken out.
Keep the pressure on.
” The identities of the dead were not known. The missile struck a house near a religious school run by Jalaluddin Haqqani in the North Waziristan region, intelligence agency officials said.”
How much do you want to bet the military knows who was there?
“There were unconfirmed reports that one of Haqqani’s sons is called Ahmad. “We are investigating whether it was the son or not,” a security official said on condition of anonymity.”
Anyone want to take bets it was at least one of Haqqani’s sons, if not several and Haqqani himself?
“The building acted as an office where militants would come to receive orders and rest between bouts of fighting across the border in Afghanistan, local residents and intelligence officials said.”
Enjoy your “rest”.
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