Small Wars Journal

Deaths of Two Afghanistan Insurgent Group Leaders Announced in Separate Incidents

Tue, 09/04/2018 - 4:51am

Deaths of Two Afghanistan Insurgent Group Leaders Announced in Separate Incidents by J.P. Lawrence - Stars & Stripes

The founder of the Haqqani Network, an insurgent group known for high-profile attacks on both military and civilian targets in Afghanistan, has died after a long illness, according to a Taliban spokesman.

Jalaluddin Haqqani, once called “goodness personified” by U.S. politicians who backed him in his battles against the Russians in the 1980s, founded a Taliban-linked organization responsible for some of the insurgency’s most heinous attacks, including the 2017 truck bomb blast near the German embassy in Kabul that killed 150 and injured 413.

After the U.S. topped the Taliban government in 2001, Haqqani served as the network’s military commander. He is believed to be among the first insurgents to adopt the tactic of suicide bombings, once seen as dishonorable among Afghan fighters, journalist Steve Coll wrote in the book “Directorate S,” which chronicled CIA activity in Afghanistan and Pakistan following 9/11…

Read on.