The Obama administration on Friday declared the insurgent Haqqani network a terrorist body, a move that could undermine Afghan peace efforts and test fragile U.S.-Pakistani relations.
A subsidiary of the Taliban, the group is based in northern Pakistan but has crossed the border to launch attacks, including a rocket-propelled grenade assault on the U.S. Embassy and NATO compound in Kabul in September, and an attack on a popular resort outside Afghanistan’s capital in June.
The network was created by Jalaluddin Haqqani while serving as a leader in the decadelong insurgency against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, which began in 1979. He developed extensive foreign contacts, getting money, weapons and supplies from Pakistani intelligence, which in turn received billions of dollars from the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.
He served as Afghanistan’s justice minister after the Soviets left, and minister of tribal and border affairs after Taliban fundamentalists seized power in 1996. He joined the Taliban insurgency when the U.S. helped overthrow the regime after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Mr. Haqqani effectively retired in 2005, passing responsibility for day-to-day operations to his son Sirajuddin, who is accused of expanding the network’s kidnapping and extortion operations. Reports also accuse the Haqqanis of lucrative drug trafficking and smuggling activity.
In August, the U.S. scored a major counterterror success when an unmanned drone strike in Pakistan near the Afghan border killed another son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, Badruddin, who was considered a vital part of the Haqqani structure.
The State Department said in May 2011 that Badruddin Haqqani sat on the Miram Shah Shura, a group that controls all Haqqani network activities and coordinates attacks in southeastern Afghanistan. It also blamed him for the 2008 kidnapping of New York Times reporter David Rohde.
The U.S. already has placed sanctions on many Haqqani leaders and is targeting its members militarily. But it had held back from formally designating the al Qaeda-linked network a terrorist group over concerns it could jeopardize reconciliation efforts between the government and insurgents in Afghanistan, and ruffle feathers with Pakistan, the Haqqanis’ longtime benefactor. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443686004577637492558989070.html
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