By Aamir Latif
KARACHI, Pakistan
The head of the formidable Taliban faction responsible for attacks on foreign troops in Afghanistan died a year ago.
Jalaluddin Haqqani, who founded the notorious Haqqani network, died in June 2014 according to Taliban and Pakistani intelligence sources.
Haqqani had for years been bed-ridden by illness, leaving his son Sirajuddin to take command of the group, which was based in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area until a Pakistani anti-militant army operation began there last year.
Haqqani rose to fame leading Afghan guerillas in a 1989 invasion of the city of Jalalabad, pushing out the then weakened Soviet occupation and its Afghan allies.
News of Haqqani's death came only days after the Taliban's top chief and founder Mullah Omar was confirmed dead Wednesday.
Rumors of Haqqani's death had circulated for months but had not been confirmed until Friday.
Said to be in his mid-80s, Haqqani fought against the 1980s Soviet occupation of Afghanistan as a commander of the Hizb-e-Islami Yunus Khalis group but is more noted for the role his Haqqani network faction of the Taliban played in attacking U.S.-led foreign forces after they invaded Afghanistan in 2001.
Once a close ally of Pakistan’s Inter Services Agency (ISI) and the CIA, Haqqani joined the Taliban as they were rising to prominence. He swore allegiance to Mullah Omar before the Taliban took control of capital Kabul in 1996, when most other contemporary militia commanders joined the Taliban.
He was appointed as minister for border affairs in the Taliban cabinet, a post he held until the Taliban was ousted in 2001.
He then took refuge in North Waziristan, later making it the headquarters for the Haqqani network.
Security sources have told Anadolu Agency that his son Sirajuddin was chosen as one of two deputy leaders during the leadership election held by the Taliban on Thursday, in reaction to the news of Mullah Omar's death.
Though the Haqqani network has remained part of the Taliban, swearing allegiance to its leadership, it has also been considered to have a great degree of its own operational independence and maintains its own internal structure.
