The Haqqanis: Pakistan ties and US fears

The United States is increasing pressure on Pakistan to cut ties with the Haqqani network, probably the most dangerous faction in the Afghan Taliban, founded by a CIA asset turned Al-Qaeda ally.

The United States blames it over some of the most spectacular attacks in Afghanistan, such as last week's 19-hour siege in Kabul and the 2009 killing of seven CIA agents, and accuses Pakistani spies of having ties to the group.

So who are the Haqqanis? Why are the Americans so concerned? How much of a threat do they represent and what exactly is their connection to Pakistan?

The network's founder is Jalaluddin Haqqani, a disciplined Afghan guerrilla leader bankrolled by the United States to fight Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s and now based with his family in Pakistan.

In the 1980s, Jalaluddin was close to the CIA and Pakistani intelligence. He then allied himself to the Taliban after they took power in Kabul in 1996 and restored calm to Afghanistan after the anarchy of civil war.

In Mullah Omar's regime, he served as minister for tribal affairs and the frontier region, Afghanistan's eastern border areas with Pakistan.

As an anti-Soviet fighter, Pakistan considered him a refugee and allowed him to live in the tribal district of North Waziristan. As a member of the Taliban government, he travelled to Islamabad in 2001.

When American troops invaded Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, Haqqani looked up old friends and sought refuge in North Waziristan, becoming one of the first anti-American commanders based in Pakistan's lawless border areas.

"He had bases in North Waziristan and the support of Pashtun tribes along the border during the anti-communist Afghan war. He returned after the fall of the Taliban," says Pakistani tribal affairs expert Rahimullah Yusufzai.

Haqqani has training bases in eastern Afghanistan, is close to Al-Qaeda and loyal to Mullah Omar, exploiting relations with militant groups to target US troops across the Afghan east, the southeast and within the capital Kabul.

Militarily the most capable and most dangerous of the Taliban factions, the network operates independently but remains politically subservient and would fall behind any peace deal negotiated by the Taliban leadership.

Now in his late 70s and frail, Jalaluddin's seat on the Afghan Taliban leadership council has passed to his son Sirajuddin, who effectively runs the Haqqani network's fighting force of at least 2,000 men.

Washington designates both father and son as "global terrorists".

Ties to Al-Qaeda date back to the 1990s, further to Arab fighters who went on to join Al-Qaeda. Yusufzai says Osama bin Laden held a news conference at a Haqqani training camp in the eastern Afghan province of Khost in 1998.

US ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter has accused the Pakistani government of links to the Haqqanis and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Tuesday renewed blunt demands that Pakistan crack down on Haqqani militants.

And a US Senate committee voted Wednesday to tie Pakistan aid to greater cooperation in fighting the Haqqanis, escalating action against the group with a move that requires approval from the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The CIA has already drastically stepped up drone strikes on North Waziristan against Haqqani fighters, and one of Jalaluddin's sons was among those killed.

The Afghan government concurs with US complaints against the Haqqanis and the Pakistanis. Defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP that the network is the "connecting bridge" between the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

But Pakistani officials deny any relationship with the Haqqani network and often downplay the group's importance.

The big question is, could Pakistan take on the Haqqanis and win?

Pakistani commanders refuse US calls for an offensive in North Waziristan, arguing that their troops are too overstretched to stir up a new hornet's nest that risks sparking a nationwide backlash in suicide attacks.

Privately, officers warn that Haqqani's fighters -- who do not attack within Pakistan -- are better trained and better armed than the Afghan Taliban's local Pakistani offshoots whom the army has taken on at great cost.

Yusufzai says it would be extremely difficult but argues that under extreme pressure Pakistan could expel the group from North Waziristan.

The Haqqanis maintain that they have no training camps in Pakistan, where the leadership is based, and that all military activity is conducted across the border in Afghanistan.

One regular visitor to North Waziristan likened Sirajuddin to a mafia godfather whose power strikes fear into the hearts of ordinary people.

"Everybody's afraid of the Haqqani network and any militant group that wants to operate in North Waziristan has to have Haqqani's agreement," he told AFP.

Yusufzai says that two of Jalaluddin's brothers, non-fighters Ibrahim and Khalil, often visit Islamabad and that through an intermediary, the Americans made secret contacts with them last year.

Reva Bhalla of global intelligence think-tank STRATFOR says Pakistan, the wider Taliban and the Haqqani network are key to any US negotiation effort to end the 10 years of war in Afghanistan.

"There are multiple differing interests and a number of sub-factions within each of these groups, but they do largely work in concert," she said.

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