Spokesmen for Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security have been quoted, by name, saying that Badruddin Haqqani has been killed in a drone strike. The death has been rumored for a couple days.
Badruddin is the son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, and the younger brother of Sirajuddin, who is usually described as the effective Haqqani Network operational commander now. Other brothers have been reported killed in drone strikes over the years.
Earlier reports have said that another drone strike killed a Bajaur-based Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan commander called Mullah Dadullah. Most reporting says that Haqqani was killed in the North Waziristan tribal area, Pakistan, and that Dadullah was killed in Kunar province, Afghanistan. Drone strikes in North Waziristan have been heavy lately.
Mistaken reports of insurgent deaths, citing U.S. sources, Afghan sources, or Pakistani sources, are fairly common.
A quick roundup of news coverage about Badruddin Haqqani's death follows, across the squiggly orange Durrand line.
Senior American officials said they had strong indications that Badruddin Haqqani, the operational commander of the Haqqani network, which is responsible for some of the most spectacular assaults on American bases and Afghan cities in recent years, was killed in a drone strike this week.
“There are indications that Haqqani has met his demise,” a senior United States official said in Washington on Friday. He said that officials were waiting to sift through evidence, including information on jihadist Web sites, before they could be certain that Mr. Haqqani had been killed.
New York Times
"We confirm that Badruddin Haqqani, who was the mastermind of almost all sophisticated attacks in Kabul, was killed in a drone strike," National Directorate of Security spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told AFP.
"Our information is based on interception of the conversation of the guys (Haqqani members) on the ground who confirmed he was dead," Mashal said.
AFP
One senior Pakistani intelligence official said Badruddin had fled a compound that he and other militants were in after it was hit by a missile, then was killed by a second drone strike on a car that he was in.
Reuters
The U.S. State Department has designated Badruddin, along with his father and brothers — Nasiruddin and Sirajuddin — as terrorists. The State Department said in May 2011 that Badruddin sits on the Miram Shah Shura, a group that controls all Haqqani network activities and coordinates attacks in southeastern Afghanistan.
Badruddin is also believed to have been responsible for the 2008 kidnapping of New York Times reporter David Rohde, the department said.
After their father effectively retired in 2005, Badruddin and his brother Sirajuddin expanded the network into kidnapping and extortion, both highly profitable for the organization, according to a recent report by the West Point, N.Y.-based Combating Terrorism Center. Afghan intelligence authorities have released intercepts of Badruddin orchestrating an attack against the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul in 2011, the CTC said.
AP
US officials blame the al-Qaida-linked Haqqani network for some of the boldest attacks in Afghanistan, including one on embassies and parliament in Kabul in April which lasted for 18 hours, leaving 15 dead, including four civilians.
Guardian
Badruddin is the Haqqani network's head of operations and is considered second in seniority to the group's leader, his older brother Sirajuddin Haqqani. Badrddin is also believed to handle the network’s vital business interests and smuggling operations.
NBC
There have been a number of CIA-operated drone strikes in the border area the past week, destroying several housing compounds. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry called in U.S. diplomats to protest the strikes.
The United States has said in the past that Pakistan was not doing enough to eliminate terrorists living in the border areas.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Saturday would not comment on the Haqqani leader’s death.
“I do not have any confirmation you are talking of Badruddin Haqqani, I do not have any information,” he said.
Voice of America