Q+A - Haqqani: From White House guest to staunch U.S. enemy   Source: REUTERS By: Online   The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan said on Wednesday he believed the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network was behind an audacious assault by militants on Kabul's diplomatic and military enclave that lasted 20 hours. Here are some questions and answers on the Haqqani network: WHAT IS THE HAQQANI NETWORK? Named after its leader, Jalaluddin Haqqani, it is one of three, and perhaps the most feared, of the Taliban-allied insurgent factions fighting U.S.-led NATO and Afghan troops in Afghanistan. Jalaluddin gained notoriety as an anti-Soviet mujahideen commander in Afghanistan in the 1980s. His bravery and ability to organise mujahideen fighters won him funding and weapons from U.S. and Pakistani intelligence services and Saudi Arabia. Former U.S. Congressman Charlie Wilson, who fund-raised for the Afghan resistance, once called Jalaluddin "goodness personified". The warrior was held in such high esteem he visited the White House when Ronald Reagan was president. After the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Haqqani turned his ferocity and battle skills on Western forces. He earned a top spot on the CIA hit list, along with his old friend Osama bin Laden, whom he met during the anti-Soviet resistance. Despite ill health, Jalaluddin, who is in his 70s, still inspires Haqqani foot soldiers believed to number up to 4,000, as well as other militant groups who revere him. His son, Siraj, seen as more ruthless, runs the daily affairs of the network. WHERE DO THE HAQQANIS OPERATE? The Haqqanis are ethnic Pashtuns from the Zadran tribe in southeastern Afghanistan's Paktia province. The group is active across much of southeastern Afghanistan and seeks to regain full control over its traditional bases in Khost, Paktia and Paktika provinces. The Haqqanis are thought to have introduced suicide bombing to Afghanistan. They are believed to have been behind several high-profile attacks in Afghanistan, including a raid on Kabul's top hotel, an assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai and a suicide attack on the Indian embassy. The Haqqanis, who are based in Pakistan's North Waziristan, have been heavily targeted by missiles fired from U.S. drone aircraft. WHY DOES PAKISTAN ALLOW THEM TO STAY IN NORTH WAZIRISTAN? The Haqqanis have become one of the biggest sources of tension between allies Washington and Islamabad. Pakistan has denied supporting the Haqqanis but has long resisted U.S. pressure to launch a full-scale offensive in Waziristan to crush the network for both domestic and foreign policy reasons. As one of the most powerful insurgent groups in Afghanistan, the Haqqanis could act as a spoiler if Pakistan feels its interests are threatened in any settlement to the 10-year war. Islamabad also sees the Haqqanis as an insurance policy against the growing influence of rival India in Afghanistan. Caving in to Washington and attacking the Haqqanis could further destabilise Pakistan. Pakistan's armed forces are already stretched fighting a nexus of dangerous homegrown militants -- both Taliban and other groups -- who have found shelter in Haqqani-controlled territory and use the group as an unofficial protective shield. WOULD THE HAQQANIS FIT INTO ANY AFGHAN PEACE SETTLEMENT? Pakistan hopes the United States will eventually welcome the participation of the Haqqanis in any Afghan peace talks. Kabul also understands the group can't be excluded. Although the Haqqanis fall under the command of Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, U.S. officials believe they do not always accept Taliban authority and can act independently. Jalaluddin has historically shown a penchant for changing sides, as the Americans know all too well, and he may be more flexible than the hardline Siraj. Washington is scrambling to bring stability to Afghanistan at it gradually withdraws from the country. Striking a deal with the Haqqanis may be wise while the ailing Jalaluddin might still have a say. Haqqanis: Growth of a militant network Top Source: BBC By:     US officials have blamed co-ordinated attacks in Kabul on the Haqqani militant network. The Haqqanis have grown from a CIA-backed anti-Soviet group into one of the most feared anti-Western militant organisations in the region, writes the BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad. The so-called Haqqani network of militants has been blamed for several high profile attacks against Western, Indian and government targets in Afghanistan. It is often described by Pakistani officials as a predominantly Afghan militant group. But its roots reach deep inside Pakistani territory, and speculation over its links to some powerful quarters within the Pakistani security establishment refuse to die down. The leader of the group, Jalaluddin Haqqani, is a Jadran tribesman from Afghanistan's Paktia province. He owns properties in the neighbouring North Waziristan tribal region of Pakistan. North Waziristan was the base from where he organised raids against the former Soviet troops that occupied Afghanistan in 1980s. American officials admit that Mr Haqqani was a prized asset of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) back then. He was also one of the favourite commanders of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) that decided which commander should get how much international funds and equipment to fight the Soviets. Many in the West and Pakistan believe he is still an asset of the ISI, though the Pakistani military denies this. They say the outreach of the Haqqanis would be far too limited without the material, tactical and logistical support of powerful elements in Pakistan. But in recent years defence analysts believe the ISI has loosened its grip on the militant groups it helped create. Bombing campaign A late convert to Taliban, Mr Haqqani was one of their top leaders to undertake a last official visit to Islamabad in late 2001, at about the time as the US started to bomb Afghanistan. Mr Haqqani disappeared in Islamabad, and resurfaced several months later in the Waziristan region where he is credited with carving out the first base of militant resistance against Western forces in the most recent conflict in Afghanistan. To this day, militants operating out of this base have inflicted more damage that any other group on Western troops in Afghanistan. The growing strength of Waziristan-based militants is seen as having turned the tide against the Americans in Afghanistan in recent years. Waziristan is seen as the source of Taliban resistance in Kunar and Ningarhar provinces in the north-east of the country, and in the southern militant strongholds of Zabul, Kandahar and Helmand. When the Americans started their bombing campaign in Afghanistan in late October 2001, thousands of Arab and Central Asian fighters started to pour into South Waziristan. Some half-hearted attempts by the Pakistani army to check this influx led to a violent conflict in the Wana region of South Waziristan in 2002, and again in 2004. More than 700 Pakistani soldiers were killed in those clashes. Subsequently, Pakistanis backed down and allowed militant groups to establish deeper roots there. By 2006, several local militant groups had emerged across the whole of South Waziristan and North Waziristan, converting the entire area into a virtual no-go zone for Pakistani officials. Civilian targets Based in different geographical locations within the region, these groups had different, sometimes conflicting, aims and agendas. Some of these groups signed peace deals with the Pakistani army, which still hold. Others were hostile to it and conducted violent campaigns against government and civilian targets in Pakistani cities and towns. But all groups were largely under the influence of the Haqqanis, and like them, professed allegiance to Mullah Omar, the Taliban's spiritual leader. Jalaluddin Haqqani's son, Sirajuddin, was the chief negotiator who united various clans of the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe in Wana region of South Waziristan in 2006. He is also believed to have been instrumental in persuading Baitullah Mehsud, the anti-Pakistan militant commander based in eastern parts of South Waziristan, to negotiate peace with the Pakistani forces in 2005 and again in 2008. While these peace deals did not hold, collaboration between the Haqqanis and Mehsud's TTP group continued. They were both blamed for organising a December 2009 suicide attack in Khost province of Afghanistan in which seven CIA operatives were killed. There is evidence that some top members of the Haqqani network have also been operating in the Pakistani mainland, away from their sanctuary in the Waziristan region. Between 2008 and 2011, two brothers of Jalaluddin Haqqani, along with some other leaders of the group, have been trying to negotiate peace between the TTP - now headed by Hakimullah Mehsud - and the Shia Turi tribe of the Kurram tribal region. At least three rounds of talks have so far been held in Peshawar, the capital of the north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and in Islamabad. This serves as an indication of the extent to which the Haqqanis can influence and shape the militant scene in Pakistan and the freedom with which they can move both within the semi-autonomous tribal areas and the Pakistani and Afghan mainlands.

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