NY Times Sept 18 2011Haqqani Network
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/h/haqqani_network/index.html
Sept 18 2011
The Haqqani network is a militant group based in Pakistan and Afghanistian that has become one of the American military's most implacable foes.
American and Afghan officials said that the complexity and execution of the siege of the American Embassy and NATO's headquarters in Kabul in September 2011 bore the hallmarks of the Haqqani network. American forces also blame the Haqqani network for helping plan a suicide bombing against a C.I.A. base in Afghanistan in 2009 in which C.I.A. operatives and a Jordanian intelligence officer were killed.
The network is a crucial ally of Al Qaeda in the Pakistani border region and has been a longtime asset of Pakistan's military and intelligence services in Afghanistan. Pakistan's military chiefs have resisted American pressure to go after the Haqqanis, whose primary base is in North Waziristan, part of Pakistan's tribal areas.
Instead, North Waziristan has become a main target of American drone strikes conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency. Some military officials say the Haqqanis have not been hit as hard as they might have been for fear of worsening relations with Pakistan's intelligence agency, so close are its ties to the network. The Pakistan military has done its best to shut down the drone campaign as relations with the United States have soured after the killing of Osama bin Laden by American commandos operating deep inside Pakistan.
The Haqqanis have been blamed for high-profile attacks in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan, including the bombing of the Indian Embassy in 2008, which killed 54 people. Afterward, American intelligence officials confronted their Pakistani counterparts with evidence that Haqqani fighters had received support and direction from Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, or ISI.
Hallmarks of attacks linked to the Haqqani network include multiple fighters, targets that are often symbols of the Afghan government and their Western backers, careful planning, and, often, instructions delivered by telephone as the attackers carry out their mission.
Haqqani Network Leadership
Sirajuddin Haqqani, 36, took over major responsibilities for his family's militant network in recent years from his father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, who has been reported to be ill.
A quarter-century ago the elder Haqqani was a favorite of American and Pakistani intelligence agencies and of wealthy Arab benefactors because of his effectiveness in organizing mujahedeen fighters from Afghanistan, Arab nations and other Muslim regions to attack the Soviet forces that had occupied Afghanistan in the 1980s. He later became the Taliban's minister of tribal affairs and was the main protector for the foreign fighters on their exodus from Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002.
After the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan he turned his expertise against American and NATO forces. He maintained a decades-old association with Osama Bin Laden and other Arabs, and together with his son, he and these allies took up a common mission to again drive foreign forces from Afghanistan.
Dande Darpakhel, just north of Miram Shah, the capital of North Waziristan, is considered the main base of the Haqqani network and family. It has been a repeated target of missile and drone strikes, one of which killed Mr. Haqqani's younger brother Mohammed in February 2010.
Wide Ranging Control
Mr. Haqqani has subcommanders threaded throughout eastern and southern Afghanistan. His fighters control Paktika, Paktia and Khost Provinces in Afghanistan, which lie close to North Waziristan and are also strong elsewhere, according to Pakistani security officials.
Mr. Haqqani has 4,000 to 12,000 Taliban fighters under his command. He is technically a member of the Afghan Taliban leadership based in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan Province in Pakistan. That leadership is headed by Mullah Muhammad Omar, the former head of the Taliban regime. But Mr. Haqqani operates somewhat independently of those leaders inside Afghanistan.
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Farmer Daily Telepgraph Sept 16 2011 U.S. vows to retaliate against Taliban-allied Haqqani network
By Ben Farmer, Daily TelegraphSeptember 16, 2011
The U.S. defence secretary has provoked a new row with Pakistan after voicing frustration over Islamabad's failure to stop the Haqqani network blamed for the Kabul attacks.
Leon Panetta complained that repeated pleas to Islamabad to prevent the Taliban-allied faction from operating from havens in Pakistan had "made very little progress."
He hinted that America would strike unilaterally against the network, telling reporters Pakistan should be aware "we're going to do everything we can to defend our forces."
Islamabad immediately bristled at his comments, which threatened to strain relations already frozen in distrust since American special forces killed Osama bin Laden deep inside Pakistan. Tehmina Janjua, a spokeswoman for Pakistan's foreign ministry, said: "We believe these remarks are not in line with the cooperation that exists between the two countries."
Both the American ambassador to Kabul and the senior U.S. commander in the country have blamed the Haqqani network for Tuesday's rocket and suicide attacks which ended in a 20-hour siege. Ryan Crocker, the U.S. envoy, also said the network was behind a truck suicide bombing that wounded 77 American soldiers at a combat outpost in Wardak province on Saturday. Afghan and American officials believe the Haqqani network maintains close ties with Pakistan's military intelligence agency dating back to the anti-Soviet resistance.
Jalaluddin Haqqani and his Mujahideen fighters were CIA favourites during the 1980s and received U.S. funding and arms channelled through Pakistan's military. He has long since turned his back on his former sponsors and his men are now closely aligned with Mullah Omar's Taliban and have seats on the movement's ruling council. Western intelligence officials believe Pakistan still uses the network, which is based in North Waziristan, as a strategic weapon to counter India's influence in Afghanistan. This is denied by Pakistan. The network remains well-armed and well-funded. It is notorious for its links to foreign jihadist fighters and for using squads of suicide attackers in co-ordinated attacks on high-profile targets.
"I think the message they need to know is: We're going to do everything we can to defend our forces," Panetta said.
He said it was "unacceptable" that the network had the ability to attack American troops and then "escape back into what is a safe haven in Pakistan."
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Gienger Bloomberg Sept 18 2011Mullen Presses Pakistan for Action Against Haqqani Militants
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By Viola Gienger - Sep 18, 2011 3:19 PM ETSun Sep 18 19:19:34 GMT 2011
U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, urged his Pakistani counterpart to take action against the Haqqani militant group that the U.S. blames for attacks on Americans in Afghanistan.
Mullen met for more than two hours with Pakistan's Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in Seville, Spain on Sept. 16, said Navy Captain John Kirby, a spokesman for Mullen. The two were attending a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's military committee to discuss operations in Afghanistan.
"Admiral Mullen conveyed his deep concerns about the increasing -- and increasingly brazen -- activities of the Haqqani network," Kirby said in an e-mailed statement. Mullen"restated his strong desire to see the Pakistani military take action against them and their safe havens in North Waziristan."
The Mullen's appeal was the latest U.S. effort to elicit more action from Kayani.
U.S. officials have blamed the Jalaluddin Haqqani militant group, one of the Taliban factions most closely aligned with Pakistan's military, for an assault on the U.S. embassy in Kabul last week and a Sept. 10 truck bomb attack that injured 77 Americans at a base southwest of the capital. While no U.S. personnel were killed in the embassy attack, there were 11 Afghan civilian deaths and five Afghan police officers died.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters this week that it was "unacceptable" that the Haqqani network can stage such attacks in Afghanistan and then find a haven across the border in Pakistan.
'Extremely Concerned'
Mullen said during an April visit to Pakistan that he was"extremely concerned" that the Pakistan army's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, or ISI, "has a longstanding relationship with the Haqqani network."
Still, Mullen, who leaves office at the end of this month, has combined his exhortations with praise for military action that Pakistan has taken against other militants.
Mullen and Kayani "agreed that the relationship between our two countries remained vital to the region and that both sides had taken positive steps to improve that relationship over the past few months," Kirby said in his e-mailed statement."They also discussed the state of military-to-military cooperation and pledged to continue to find ways to make it better."
Mullen will be succeeded by General Martin Dempsey, who most recently served as Army chief of staff.
Kayani has faced pressure from within his own ranks to curb cooperation with the U.S. after American Navy Seals killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a May raid in Pakistan without the knowledge of Pakistani authorities.
To contact the reporter on this story: Viola Gienger in Washington at vgienger@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
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