Haqqani Network Leader Dies in Airstrike

WASHINGTON, June 30, 2011 — The Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force today con­firmed the death of a Haqqani net­work leader who’s linked to the June 28 sui­cide-bomb attack on the Inter­con­ti­nen­tal Hotel in Kab­ul, Afghanistan, mil­i­tary offi­cials report­ed.
Offi­cials said Ismail Jan and sev­er­al Haqqani fight­ers were killed yes­ter­day dur­ing a pre­ci­sion airstrike in the Gardez dis­trict of Pak­tiya province. Jan was the deputy to Haji Mali Khan, the senior Haqqani com­man­der inside Afghanistan.

The Haqqani net­work, in con­junc­tion with Tal­iban oper­a­tives, was respon­si­ble for the attack on the Inter­con­ti­nen­tal Hotel which killed 12 peo­ple, includ­ing a provin­cial judge. Jan also served as an insur­gent leader in the Khost-Gardez Pass area, along the Afghanistan/Pakistan bor­der. He report­ed­ly moved into Afghanistan from Pak­istan in late 2010. Dur­ing this time he led approx­i­mate­ly 25 to 35 fight­ers in con­duct­ing attacks against Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty forces. 

The Haqqani net­work is linked to sev­er­al high-pro­file attacks, includ­ing the assas­si­na­tion of for­mer Log­ar provin­cial gov­er­nor Moham­mad Jan Abdul­lah War­dak. War­dak was assas­si­nat­ed in a mas­sive explo­sive-device attack as he left his com­pound in Sep­tem­ber 2008. 

Afghan-led secu­ri­ty forces have cap­tured or killed more than 80 Haqqani lead­ers and facil­i­ta­tors since Jan­u­ary, pri­mar­i­ly in the Pak­ti­ka, Pak­tiya and Khost areas. 

In Afghanistan oper­a­tions yesterday: 

— A com­bined Afghan and coali­tion force killed two Haqqani insur­gents and detained numer­ous sus­pects dur­ing a secu­ri­ty oper­a­tion in the Zur­mat dis­trict of Pak­ti­ka province. The tar­get of the oper­a­tion was a Haqqani leader who plans attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces. Addi­tion­al­ly, he maneu­vers fight­ers and weapons from Pak­istan into Pak­ti­ka province. Dur­ing the engage­ment, four Afghan civil­ians received minor shrap­nel wounds from insur­gent grenades. All were treat­ed by the secu­ri­ty force and three were tak­en to a med­ical facil­i­ty for fol­low-up care. 

— A com­bined Afghan and coali­tion force detained two sus­pects while search­ing for a Tal­iban leader in the Char Bulak dis­trict of Balkh province. The leader is respon­si­ble for con­duct­ing small-arms and road­side-bomb attacks against Afghan secu­ri­ty forces. 

— In Zab­ul province, a com­bined Afghan and coali­tion force cap­tured a Tal­iban leader and two sus­pects dur­ing a secu­ri­ty oper­a­tion in the Qalat dis­trict. The leader was respon­si­ble for both facil­i­ta­tion and attack coor­di­na­tion with­in the Qalat dis­trict. He moved weapons and com­mu­ni­ca­tions equip­ment for fel­low insur­gents and has con­duct­ed sev­er­al attacks against Afghan and coali­tion forces. 

— A com­bined Afghan and coali­tion force cap­tured a Tal­iban leader and sev­er­al sus­pects dur­ing a secu­ri­ty oper­a­tion in the Nahr‑e Saraj dis­trict of Hel­mand province. The leader pro­cured weapons, includ­ing road­side bombs, for Tal­iban com­man­ders in the area. The secu­ri­ty force also dis­cov­ered and safe­ly destroyed sev­er­al pounds of opium. 

— A com­bined Afghan and coali­tion force killed sev­er­al insur­gents dur­ing a secu­ri­ty oper­a­tion in the Mai­wand dis­trict of Kan­da­har province. The secu­ri­ty force was engaged by insur­gents with small-arms fire and rock­et-pro­pelled grenades. The force returned fire, killing sev­er­al insurgents. 

— A com­bined Afghan and coali­tion force dis­cov­ered a weapons cache dur­ing a secu­ri­ty oper­a­tion in the Tarin Kot dis­trict of Uruz­gan province. The cache con­sist­ed of 960 7.62 mm rounds, eight AK-47 rifle mag­a­zines, 13 grenades and 12 fuses. 

— In the Pan­jwa’i dis­trict of Kan­da­har province, a com­bined Afghan and coali­tion force dis­cov­ered a drug cache con­sist­ing of 496 pounds of hashish. All the drugs were destroyed by secu­ri­ty forces. 

In June 28 Afghanistan operations: 

— An ISAF patrol dis­cov­ered a weapons cache dur­ing an oper­a­tion in the Gelan dis­trict of Ghazni province. The cache con­sist­ed of eight RPGs, five RPG boost­ers and 100 12.7 mm rounds. 

— A com­bined Afghan-led oper­a­tion detained one sus­pect while dis­cov­er­ing a weapons cache in the Nizam‑e Shahid dis­trict of Her­at province. The cache was hid­den in a truck and con­sist­ed of 207 antiper­son­nel mines, 7,716 pounds of home­made explo­sives, 772 pounds of alu­minum pow­der, five sui­cide vests, 1,181 feet of det­o­na­tion cord, 20 elec­tric blast­ing caps, 100 radio fre­quen­cy trans­mit­ters and receivers and var­i­ous impro­vised explo­sive device-mak­ing materials. 

Source:
Com­piled from Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force Joint Com­mand News Releases 

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