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Drone strike killed senior Haqqani member, U.S. says

Smoke and flame rise from burning NATO supply oil tankers following an attack by gunmen in the agricultural town of Shikarpur, 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of Karachi on October 13, 2011. Gunmen on October 13 torched four oil tankers in southern Pakistan carrying fuel for NATO troops in Afghanistan, police said. Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants frequently launch attacks on NATO supply vehicles in the northwest and southwest regions of Pakistan, which border landlocked Afghanistan.
October 13, 2011
A CIA drone attack in northwest Pakistan on Thursday killed the most senior figure in the Haqqani network struck to date, a U.S. official said.
Janbaz Zadran was a trusted deputy of network leader Sirajuddin Haqqani and a “close aide” to Haqqani’s brother Badruddin, the group’s top operational commander. Zadran “played key roles in resupplying the Haqqani network and insuring the fighters in Afghanistan had access” to the group’s Pakistan-based leadership, the official said.
“It’s probably the most senior death of any Haqqani network member in Pakistan to date, if it’s true,” said Jeffrey Dressler of the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War. “He’s on everybody’s radar.” Dressler and other experts said Zadran was not an active fighter but was in charge of group’s finances and arms shipments.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/us-drone-strike-kills-haqqani-insider/2011/10/13/gIQA5rT3gL_story.html [with comments]