What Is The Haqqani Network?
- It refers to some 15,000 fighters who owe allegiance to Jalaluddin Haqqani, currently based in North Waziristan
- Jalaluddin is now more patriarch; the real power lies with son Sirajuddin
- Jalaluddin’s nephew Sangeen Zadran and son Badruddin coordinate attacks
- His son from his Arab wife, Nasiruddin, is the principal fundraiser
- Jalaluddin lost son Mohammed in ’09 in a drone attack; two wives, sister, sister-in-law, 8 grandchildren the year before.
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Back in 2001, when Osama bin Laden’s men shook the United States out of its complacency with their brazen terror attack on September 11, then US president George W. Bush had vowed to a nervous nation that he would “smoke out” the terrorists from their mountain hideouts. To the rest of the world, he had bristled: “You’re either with us or against us.” It has taken America ten long years...
