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Subscribe to RSSAfghanistan's intelligence agency says its operatives have confirmed that a top commander of Haqqani militants behind some of the biggest attacks on Western and Afghan government targets in Afghanistan has been killed.
Agency spokesman Shafiqullah Tahiri said Sunday that Badruddin Haqqani was killed in an airstrike in Pakistan, The Associated Press reported. He said the strike took place last week but did not give more details. He would not say whether the agency's sources have seen the body.
The Taliban, which is allied with the Haqqani network, have said that Badruddin is still alive and in Afghanistan.
Tahiri said the Afghan government is confident that its information is correct.
Badruddin is the Haqqani network's head of operations and is considered second in seniority to the group's leader, his older brother Sirajuddin Haqqani. Badrddin is also believed to handle the network’s vital business interests and smuggling operations.
One senior Pakistani intelligence official told Reuters that Badruddin had fled a compound in Pakistan's tribal North Waziristan that he and other militants were in after it was hit by a missile, then was killed by a second drone strike on a car that he was in.
However, Maulvi Ahmed Jan, a senior Haqqani network commander, denied Badruddin had been killed. He said a distant relative, 13-year-old Osama, was killed in the strike and his funeral had been mistaken by locals for Badruddin's.
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If Badruddin's death is confirmed, it could deal a major blow to the Haqqanis, one of the United States' most feared enemies in Afghanistan.
The Haqqanis are the most experienced fighters in Afghanistan and the loss of one of the group's most important leaders could ease pressure on NATO as it prepares to withdraw most of its combat troops at the end of 2014.
A series of drone strikes in North Waziristan this week suggest the CIA, which remotely operates the aircraft, was after a high-value militant target in the unruly area.
The deaths of militants in such strikes are difficult to confirm as they often occur in areas of regions in the northwest such as North Waziristan that are hard for authorities to reach.
Taliban commander, 12 others killed by US drone strike
U.S. officials blame the al-Qaida-linked network for some of the boldest attacks in Afghanistan, including one on embassies and parliament in Kabul in April that lasted 18 hours, killing 11 Afghan security forces and four civilians.
The United States accuses Pakistan's intelligence agency of supporting the Haqqani network and using it as a proxy in Afghanistan to gain leverage against the growing influence of its arch-rival India in the country.
Pakistan denies the allegations.
Meer Afzal / EPA file
A picture dated Sept. 2 shows Mulla Dadullah (center) talking with journalists at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area of Kunar and Bajaur tribal region.
Militant groups from Afghanistan and Pakistan have formed alliances and often cross the porous border for operations.
A separate NATO airstrike in eastern Afghanistan killed a commander of the Pakistani Taliban, both NATO and the Taliban said on Saturday.
Both sides identified the dead commander as Mulla Dadullah and said several of his comrades were also killed in the attack on Friday.
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More excellent news of the drone campaign. These 3rd world mutants must just be amazed that the technology that they abhor is exactly what is killing them.
Mulla Dadoola hurry before you run out of virgins!
The promised virgins are probably male.
Well looking at the male members from there , I would say you are right . Who would want to have any of them.
Mulla Dadullah is just his rapper name. His REAL name is Fred Smith.
Road Kill, most excellent funny comment!
Mu-Du, as he is known to those close to him (if any are left), went to the happy hunting ground on Friday (according to the article) only to find that the promised Virgins were all Nuns...and they were not happy...and now neither is Mu-Du!
Me Do think...that Mu Du...be very...very...sad...for a long...long...time!
Sichuan !!
The promised virgins probably look like Yasser Arafat in drag.
Of course this is just a reporters accounting of what happened and therefore cannot be taken as pure fact..
Not to mention that opinion is incorporated into the account as well.. There is a statement that seems to accompany most stories of this ilk.and I paraphrase to relate a link to other reports as well.. "Drones were used because the area was inaccessible to authorities." Seems odd to me.. If the area is accessible to Taliban and Al Quaida.. why is not accessible to the worlds most deadly army? Where is the video? The Pics? The verification that these are true acts of war and not the selective murders of political opponents of a puppet government installed by a corrupt coalition?
My God, you're a total frikin' genius! Go back and read your post, and then think about what you wrote, then maybe you'll understand how dumb it is.
They took out the head of the B-team. Big Whoop.
This place would have been cleaned up and finished years ago if Bush had not pulled all the troops out to go to Iraq for no reason at all. Another of the lasting Bush legacies.
Tending to the controllable, but unextinguishable fire. ie Keeping the flames of terrorism tamped down. Will be going on as long as they are a threat.
@ prisons;
Well sir when you can stop terrorist from having little terrorist then you will have found a solution, until then we will stay on top of them mentally,and physically. Keep in mind they hear the surveillance drones constantly,and really can not distinguish one from the other, this would play on your head over time.
Another notch in Dubya's gun, wow, Dubya and Dickles, what a couple hero's. They just keep taking these top guys out. Good thing Obama does exactly what D&D tell him to, it's the only thing he ever did right.
Braindead rightie logic...
Even if this was true, it doesn't change a thing. Al-Qaeda has missed a beat since bin-Laden was taken out. They're still out there murdering men, women and children and blowing up market places, even though bin-Laden is dead. For sure there are loads of Taliban terrorists vying for the newly opened position near the top of the dung heap.
Good riddance to Badruddin Haqqani; and good riddance to Mullah Dadullah.
Pakistan and NATO should now make every effort to strike the Taliban.
The only thing these savages know -- and deal with -- is force. Let's serve it up to them.
The opportunity is fleeting.
Those Taliban hillbillies really need a shave and some deodorant. Even the fleas and rats are repulsed by them. It's obvious that they would rather live like lunatic outlaws than to behave like civilized men. Die young and stupid then.
It is highly doubtful that the locals 'mistook the funeral of a 13 year old nephew' for that of Haqqani. The locals ALL know who is in their villages and who is not. They ALL know who was killed and who was not. The Al Qaida news releases are using the Iranian style of rebutting the reports by denying everything that is reported unless it benefits them, then inflating the numbers to suit themselves. Just start the carpet bombing and take it all the way to the Chinese border.
Death from the clear blue sky...still vengence for 9/11 as far as I'm concerned. Love the smell of burnt beard in the morning.
Haqqani, Hutaree...all the same thing. Foreign-sounding right-wing religious extremists with guns trying to overthrow the government.
End the War in Afghanistan.
The only reason we are there is to control the poppy fields that are used to make heroin and the oil lines that run through Afghanistan.
Take the blood out oil NOW. Bring our troops home to fight the Freedom War that is brewing in America.
World Warriors, Freedom Fighters and others like them unite to protect our rights of FREEDOM.
Join The Freedom March on Washington DC 2012.
Impeach Obama NOW!!! Before he destroys the rest of America.
Talking about Mullah Dadulla, The news I got was that he was KILLED in 2007. What gives? Our NEWSCASTERS will print anything that sounds BOMBASTIC, and UNUSUAL. There go the PRESS again, sounding "newsworthy". They could NEVER get their "sources right, once and for all.
Taking out a few of the terrorist leaders every now and then isn't a bad thing. But don't you think it would be more effective to take out several thousand of the ground pounding ragheads with some judicious carpet bombing? What's the point in maintaining hundreds of billions of dollars worth of B-1s and B-2s if you aren't going to use them effectively? And if it takes out some women and children, so what? That means fewer terrorists in the future.
Mr. Griffin is proof that even university educated people can have all of the intellect of a tree stump. I wonder what university "educated" him. Was it Bob Jones? Liberty?
3 words fellas; Gillete Mach 3
One down and thousands more to go.