Hi, I'm just calling to say how much I've enjoyed working with you. Thank you. Yes, I'm cleaning out my desk now. No; no plans at this time to write another memoir. By the way, about that InterCon business; would you mind asking General Pasha if he could maybe check around and get a firm lead on who coordinated the attack and where to find him? Uh huh. Uh huh. Of course he has every right to be angry about all the negative publicity about the ISI but you know Langley is still pretty ticked off about Khost. Look, tell him it's not as if we're asking for Haqqani or Omar; just someone high enough on the food chain to make Centcom happy.
ISAF airstrike kills senior Haqqani Network commander involved in Kabul hotel attackVisit LWJ website for rest of the report and its source links.
By Bill Roggio
The Long War Journal
June 30, 2011
Coalition special operations forces killed a senior Taliban commander who was involved in a suicide assault on a hotel in Kabul just two days ago.
Ismail Jan, the Haqqani Network commander, was killed yesterday in "a precision airstrike" in the Gardez district in the eastern province of Paktia. The special operations forces targeted Jan "after receiving several intelligence reports from Afghan government officials, Afghan citizens, and disenfranchised insurgents," the International Security Assistance Force stated in a press release that announced Jan's death.
ISAF described Jan as a deputy of Haji Mali Khan, "the senior Haqqani commander inside Afghanistan." He also commanded fighters in the Khost-Gardez Pass, a strategic area that links the provinces of Khost and Paktia. Khan "moved into Afghanistan from Pakistan in late 2010," ISAF stated. "During this time he led approximately 25 to 35 fighters in conducting attacks against Afghan and Coalition security forces."
Jan provided "material support" for the June 28 suicide assault on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul that killed 12 people. The heavily armed suicide assault team penetrated security at the hotel and went room to room in an attempt to kill foreigners. ISAF helicopter teams were called in to kill members of the team who were sniping from the rooftop.
ISAF said that the Intercontinental attack was carried out "in conjunction with Taliban operatives," confirming a report by The Long War Journal that the attack was indeed carried out by the Kabul Attack Network.
The Kabul Attack Network is made up of fighters from the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, and Hizb-i-Islami Gulbuddin, and cooperates with terror groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and al Qaeda. It pools the resources of these groups to conduct attacks in and around the Afghan capital. Top Afghan intelligence officials have linked the Kabul Attack Network to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence [ISI] directorate as well.
The network's tentacles extend outward from Kabul into the surrounding provinces of Logar, Wardak, Nangarhar, Kapisa, Ghazni, and Zabul, a US intelligence official told the Long War Journal.
The Kabul Attack Network is led by Dawood (or Daud) and Taj Mir Jawad, military and intelligence officials told The Long War Journal. Dawood is the Taliban's shadow governor for Kabul, while Taj Mir Jawad is a top commander in the Haqqani Network.
Background on the Haqqani Network
The Haqqani Network operates primarily in the Afghan provinces of Khost, Paktia, and Paktika, and also has an extensive presence in Kabul, Logar, Wardak, Ghazni, Zabul, Kandahar, and Kunduz.
The terror group has close links with al Qaeda and the Taliban, and its relationship with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) has allowed the network to survive and thrive in its fortress stronghold of North Waziristan, a tribal agency in Pakistan. The Haqqani Network has also extended its presence into the tribal agency of Kurram.
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(See LWJ report Pakistan's Jihad and Threat Matrix report Pakistan backs Afghan Taliban for additional information on the ISI's complicity in attacks in Afghanistan and the region.)
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