Pakistani intelligence officials confirmed on Thursday that a US drone strike last week near the Afghan border killed the son of the founder of the powerful Haqqani militant network, a major blow to one of the most feared groups fighting American troops in Afghanistan.
Badruddin Haqqani, who has been described as the organisation’s day-to-day operations commander, was killed August 24 in one of three strikes that hit militant hideouts in the Shawal Valley in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal area, said two senior intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media.
A US official confirmed that Badruddin Haqqani was killed in a CIA drone strike. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the drone programme publicly.
The presence of the mostly Afghan Haqqani network in North Waziristan has been a major source of friction between Pakistan and the US The Obama administration has repeatedly demanded that Pakistan prevent the group from using its territory to launch attacks in Afghanistan, but Islamabad has refused - a stance many analysts believe is driven by the country’s strong historical ties to the Haqqani network’s founder, Jalaluddin Haqqani.
The Pakistani intelligence officials didn’t specify which strike on Aug. 24 killed Badruddin, but said he was leaving a hideout when the US missiles hit. The confirmation of his death came from their sources within the Taliban, which is allied with the Haqqani network, and agents on the ground, they said. But neither the officials nor their sources have actually seen Badruddin’s body.
Pakistani intelligence officials previously said they were 90 per cent sure Badruddin was killed in a drone strike in a different part of North Waziristan on Aug. 21. It’s unclear what caused the discrepancy.