A CIA drone strike in Pakistan may have killed the operational commander of the Haqqani network, the insurgent group behind some of the most high-profile attacks on Western and Afghan government targets in Afghanistan.
Pakistani intelligence officials said Badruddin Haqqani, who is also believed to handle the network's business interests and smuggling operations, may have been killed in Pakistan's North Waziristan region.
"Our informers have told us that he has been killed in the drone attack but we cannot confirm it," said a Pakistani intelligence official.
If Badruddin's death is confirmed, it could deal a major blow to the Haqqani network, one of the United States's most feared enemies in Afghanistan, where it is allied with the Taliban.
"We are 90% sure that he was in the same house which was attacked with a drone," said another Pakistani intelligence official.
Sources close to the Haqqani network also said Badruddin was believed to be in the house, hit by the strike as militants were planting explosives in a vehicle meant to be used for an attack on Nato forces in Afghanistan.
"The drone fired two missiles on the house last Tuesday and killed 25 people, most of them members of the Haqqani family," one of the sources said.
Pakistani Taliban and tribal sources said they believed Badruddin was killed in the drone attack.
However, one of Badruddin's relatives said he was alive and busy with his "jihad activities".
A series of drone strikes in North Waziristan last week suggest the CIA, which remotely operates the aircraft, was after a high-value militant target in the unruly area.
The deaths of militants in such strikes are difficult to confirm as they often occur in remote areas of regions in the north west.
US officials blame the al Qaeda-linked network for some of the boldest attacks in Afghanistan, including one on embassies and the parliament in Kabul in April, which lasted 18 hours, killing 11 Afghan security forces and four civilians.
The United States accuses Pakistan's intelligence agency of supporting the Haqqani network and using it as a proxy in Afghanistan to gain leverage against the influence of India in the country. Pakistan denies the allegations.
Militants from Afghanistan and Pakistan have formed alliances and often cross the porous border for operations.
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