US decides to go after Haqqanis

daily times

The Obama administration has decided to go all-out against the Haqqani network, which it blames for the September attack on the US embassy in Kabul, Washington Post reported on Saturday.
As part of the latest efforts to cripple the group, a CIA drone strike Thursday killed three of its members, including a senior official, and additional strikes Friday left four dead. The attacks in Pakistan were carried out near Miranshah, capital of North Waziristan Agency, a city rarely targeted in the past because of the difficulty of finding well-concealed insurgent leaders and the possibility of civilian deaths in an urban area.
“The Obama administration has launched the opening salvos of a new, more aggressive approach towards an Afghan insurgent group it asserts is supported by Pakistan’s government,” the newspaper quoted senior US administration officials. “The decision to strike Miranshah was made at a National Security Council meeting chaired by President Obama two weeks ago and was intended to ‘send a signal’ that the United States would no longer tolerate a safe haven for the most lethal enemy of US forces in Afghanistan, or Pakistan’s backing for it,” the paper quoted one of several US officials who spoke about internal deliberations on the condition of anonymity.
The strikes were made possible by focusing intelligence collection to “allow us to pursue certain priorities,” the official said. Senior Haqqani figure Janbaz Zadran was selected along with other targets to “demonstrate how seriously we take the Miranshah” threat, he elaborated.
“Military options debated at the September 29 meeting were set aside for now,” officials said, including the possibility of a ground operation against Haqqani leaders similar to the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May. Although the administration has left the raid option on the table, the potential negatives of such an operation — including the possible collapse of Pakistan’s military leadership and civilian government — are seen as far outweighing its benefits.
The Washington Post report says that in a series of meetings with the national security team, the White House reviewed long-standing options in Pakistan, ranging from outright attack to diplomacy, along with the likely ramifications of each, a process that culminated in the Sept. 29 NSC meeting.
The report quotes officials as saying that Obama had gradually lost faith in Pakistan and its weak civilian leadership. But the core goal of their efforts, the president reminded his team, was the elimination of “Pakistan-based al Qaeda”. It was important, he warned them, that “nobody takes their eye off the ball.”
An additional outcome of the NSC meeting, officials said, was an order for various players – the Defence Department, the CIA, the State Department, and the White House itself – to stop sending mixed messages to Pakistan and others about the administration’s war policies.
The report further reveals that Obama’s National Security Adviser, Thomas E Donilon, conveyed administration resolve to Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Kayani at a secret meeting in Saudi Arabia. The United States wanted a relationship with Pakistan, officials said Donilon told Kayani, but it also wanted the Haqqani attacks to stop. Pakistani officials said Donilon offered Kayani three choices: kill the Haqqani leadership, help us kill them, or persuade them to join a peaceful, democratic Afghan government.