US drone kills Afghan Taliban commanders in North Waziristan

On Thursday, a US drone fired two missiles into a compound in Dandi Darpakhel village near North Waziristan's main town of Miranshah where many members of Jalaluddin Haqqani's extended family have been living since the 1980s. The Haqqani network is said to have connections with al Qaeda and has carried out several high profile attacks in Afghanistan, though it does not launch attacks in Pakistan. Jalaluddin Haqqani is also reported to have had close links with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

The main target was not present

Jalaluddin Haqqani, now in his seventies, has passed on the leadership of his faction to his other son, Sirajuddin Haqqani. US forces in Afghanistan consider Sirajuddin Haqqani to be one of their prime foes and have placed a bounty of 5 million dollars on his head. Sirajuddin Haqqani might also have been the main target of Thursday's drone attack, since he is known to visit the village from time to time. But now Pakistani intelligence officials have identified his younger brother Mohammad Haqqani as being among the three persons killed in the drone attack.

The village has been repeatedly targeted by US drones and a strike in September 2008 left 23 people dead, many of them members of the Haqqani family.

ac/AFP/Reuters
Editor:Thomas Bärthlein