Drone strikes: Top Haqqani Network commander killed

Mullah Sangeen Zadran died along with five others in drone hit, including three suspected al Qaeda fighters.

MIRAMSHAH/ ISLAMABAD:

Mullah Sangeen Zadran, the second-in-command of the Haqqani Network, was among those killed in late Thursday night’s drone attack in a tribal region, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Six suspected militants were killed by a US drone in North Waziristan Agency. According to officials, the drone launched two missiles at a compound in the Ghulam Khan area, roughly eight kilometres north of Miramshah and close to the border with Afghanistan’s Khost province.

Talking to The Express Tribune, a local security official confirmed Zadran was killed in the drone strike along with five other suspected militants. Seven others, he added, were injured in the attack.

The official said those killed also included three suspected al Qaeda members. Two of them were identified as Jordanian nationals while the third reportedly hailed from Egypt. The remaining two were local tribesmen, he added.

According to locals, some of those killed and injured in the strike were Zadran’s bodyguards.



Zadran, 45, hailed from the Zadran tribe in Afghanistan’s Paktika province. He was a popular leader among militants and played an influential role in bringing different banned outfits, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban, together.

In August 2011, the US State Department added Zadran to its list of designated global terrorists. The militant commander had been blamed for a number of attacks on US and Nato forces in Afghanistan. Zadran also appeared in a video alongside US soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who was kidnapped by the Taliban in June 2009.

Foreign Office reaction

Pakistan on Friday strongly condemned the latest US drone strike in North Waziristan Agency, reiterating the CIA-led campaign in the tribal areas was a violation of its territorial integrity and sovereignty.

In a statement issued hours after the strike, foreign ministry spokesperson Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry denounced the drone campaign and called for its immediate halt.

“The government of Pakistan has consistently maintained that drone strikes are counter-productive, entail loss of innocent civilian lives and have human rights and humanitarian implications,” he said.

He added that such strikes also set dangerous precedents in the inter-state relations.

“These drone strikes have a negative impact on the mutual desire of both countries to forge a cordial and cooperative relationship and to ensure peace and stability in the region,” the spokesman maintained.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2013.