Siraj Haqqani: Warlord of Haqqani Network Has Captured US Soldier

On Thursday, July 2, 2009, a U.S. soldier was captured in Afghanistan for the first time since the war started in 2001. At the same time Operation Khanjar is being rolled out, the "low-level" Afghani soldiers who caught the U.S. private sold him to a militant insurgent group known as the Haqqani Network, led by local warlord Siraj Haqqani.

Siraj Haqqani, or Sirajudin Haqqani, is one of the principle leaders of the Haqqani Network, ruled by his father Jalaluddin Haqqani. Born in 1979, Siraj acquired up to a Grade 7-8 education and basic religious education. He was involved in the 2008 attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul, as well as the 2008 assassination attempt on President Karzai of Afghanistan.

The Haqqani Network is an Afghani insurgent group based in the city of Khost, in eastern Afghanistan. They control large areas of the country and have been targeted by US drones. In the 1970s, the Haqqani Network battled Soviet forces with considerable aid from the CIA, the US Central Intelligence Agency, through Pakistani intelligence services, the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence).

According to Siraj in an April 6 interview with AfPax Insider in 2009, Haqqani policy is to focus only on fighting against US and allied forces within Afghanistan, as invaders of their home.

The Haqqani Network is closely affiliated with the Taliban, and is considered one of their strongest factions. Jalaluddin Haqqani joined the Taliban shortly after fighting off the Soviet Union, and became their minister of tribal affairs. The group is also allied with the forces of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, of the Hezb-e Islami insurgent group. Finally, the Haqqanis have been associated with Al Qaeda, with Siraj saying his father has met Osama bin Laden on several occasions.

Since coming into power, Siraj has followed his father in concentrating forces within their home district of Zadran, while expanding into areas south of Kabul. According to Siraj in the April 2009 interview, the $5 million bounty placed on his head earlier in the year by the US was considered welcome acknowledgement of the Haqqanni Network's impact.

In the interview, Siraj expressed his and his father's desire for there to be fewer disparate insurgent groups and organizations, and for the existing ones to all be united as one against the US, which he believes has not changed under Obama from the days of Bush. They are "two ears of the same donkey," he said. Siraj also urged Muslims around the world and other Gulf countries to contribute, financially or otherwise, to their cause.

The Haqqani Network has resisted allowing government powers in Afghanistan to extend into their territory, but the Karzai administration has been courting the group with offers of positions in government. Though the Haqqani Network has been reported to have been aided by the US while fighting the Soviets and is being aided by Pakistan, Russia, or other Gulf countries now, Siraj attributes all aid of Haqqani forces to God and Muslim individuals who are private backers.

While the CIA in July 2008 indicated ties between the Haqqani Network and Pakistan's ISI, in his interview Siraj denied any relationship between the two groups, saying the ISI has only been harmful to Haqqani forces and that the association is an attempt to marr their reputation. Despite such denials, there has been fear and speculation that the captured US soldier now in Haqqani hands may be transferred into Pakistan, which has serious implications.

Based on precedents such as Canadian journalists Khadija Abdul Qahaar and Beverly Giesbrecht, Polish engineer Piotr Stanczak, US reporter David Rohde and Afghani journalist Tahir Ludin, and US journalists Nir Rosen and Daniel Pearl, the outlook of retrieving a prisoner hostage from Pakistan does not seem optimistic, particularly as Pakistan is not an ally of the United States.