US missile attack kills Haqqani member in Pakistan

Missiles kill three militants in North Waziristan – home to Haqqani network which US claims is main threat in Afghanistan An American missile strike has killed a member of the militant Haqqani network in northwestern Pakistan, striking at a group that Washington claims is the number one threat in Afghanistan and is supported by Pakistani security forces, local intelligence officials said. Two other militants were killed in the attack on Thursday close to the Haqqani stronghold of North Waziristan, the group’s main sanctuary along the Afghan border, said the Pakistani officials in the region. They identified the Haqqani member as Jalil and said he was a “co-ordinator” for the group. The men were walking down a street when the drone-fired missile hit. One official said Jalil was related to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the network. The missiles hit close to Dande Darpa Khel village, which is home to a large seminary with links to the Haqqanis. The al-Qaida-allied Haqqani network is one of most organised insurgent factions fighting the US presence in Afghanistan, and it has been blamed for assaults against western and Afghan targets in Kabul. Washington has long urged Islamabad to attack the fighters, who live undisturbed in North Waziristan despite the region being home to several thousand Pakistani troops. At the same time, the US is pursuing the possibility of peace talks with the Haqqanis and other Taliban factions, reflecting the fact that the insurgency cannot be defeated militarily. The attack took place hours before US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, arrived in Pakistan for talks with the country’s prime minister and army chief. Grossman, whose mission is to promote the peace process, will likely discuss US concerns about the Haqqani network. Last month, senior American officials accused Pakistan’s spy agency of assisting the Haqqani network in attacks on Western targets in Afghanistan, including a strike last month on the US embassy in Kabul. Pakistani officials have denied the charges. They were the most serious allegations yet of Pakistani duplicity in the 10-year war in Afghanistan and have further strained ties between Islamabad and Washington. Obama administration officials have since backtracked on the claims. Most independent analysts say Pakistan is either tolerating or supporting the Haqqani network to some degree because it foresees chaos in Afghanistan once America withdraws, and wants to cultivate the group as an ally there against the influence of India, its regional enemy. Since 2008, the US has regularly unleashed unmanned drone-fired missiles against militants in the border region, which is home to Pakistani militants, Afghan factions like the Haqqanis and al-Qaida operatives from around the world, especially the Middle East. This year, there have been around 50 drone strikes, most of them in North Waziristan. US officials do not acknowledge the CIA-led programme publicly. Pakistani officials protest the strikes, which are unpopular among many Pakistanis, but the country is believed to support them privately and makes no diplomatic or military efforts to stop them. US leverage against Pakistan to get it to fight the Haqqani group is limited because it relies on the country to truck much of its war supplies into Afghanistan. The supplies of non-lethal material arrive in Pakistan’s port of Karachi by sea before traveling into Afghanistan by land. The convoys are occasionally attacked by insurgents, especiallty close to the border, where the militants are strongest. On Thursday, gunmen opened fire and set ablaze five tankers carrying oil for Nato and US troops in Sindh province, some 1,200 miles (2,000km) from the border, said police officer Khair Mohammad Samejho. The tankers were parked outside a restaurant in Shikarpur district when they were attacked, he said. Pakistan United States Afghanistan guardian.co.uk

Posted by on October 13, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.