Latest Drone Strike Targets Haqqani: Officials Say It's Not Clear if Powerful Taliban Leader Was Hit

Newsweek Feb 18, 2010 02:22 PM
By Sami Yousafzai, Mark Hosenball, and Michael HirshIn the latest of a flurry of moves against top Taliban leaders in recent weeks, U.S. unmanned aircraft launched a strike Thursday against a convoy of vehicles believed to be carrying Sirajuddin Haqqani, the powerful leader of Pakistani Taliban forces in eastern Afghanistan, where American casualties have been highest.U.S. and Pakistani officials say they don’t have confirmation that Haqqani was actually in one of the vehicles that was struck, but initial intelligence reports indicate that he might have been. “He was targeted as part of a strike, and we think he might have been hit, but I’m waiting for the DNA tests. We’ve been trying to kill him for a long time, and he’s escaped before,” a senior Pakistani official told NEWSWEEK. A Taliban official in the region said he too believes that Haqqani was the target of the strike, but “whether or not he was in the car is not clear yet.” There were reports that two missiles had been fired; one at a compound, another at a vehicle. More