An unconfirmed report by Bakhtar News Agency has surfaced indicating legendary Mujahideen commander and Taliban era Minister Jalaluddin Haqqani has died. According to a source that refused to be named, Haqqani 'had Hepatitis problems and died very recently.'
So far there has been no official proclamation of his death from his sons Sirajuddin and Nasiruddin or the Taliban in Afghanistan. The report must be treated as pure speculation until further information is available.
If confirmed, Haqqani's death mimic the detrimental blow the Taliban suffered on May 13 when top Taliban general Mullah Dadullah was gunned down by US forces.
Dadullah and Haqqani were tasked with masterminding the Taliban's military strategy by Mullah Mohammad Omar in 2006. Haqqani, who has a long history with Arab financiers and the Pakistani intelligence community, is credited with introducing suicide bomber to post-Taliban Afghanistan.
He is known to have lived in and around Miram Shah in North Waziristan and is rumored to have thousands of fighters and volunteers under his command. His strongholds remain, Nangarhar, Paktia, Paktika, and Khost provinces. His legacy of fending off the Soviet's largest offensive of the Soviet-Afghan war, Operational Magistral, is remembered fondly by many of Afghanistan's eastern residents. His high public regards and 'war hero' status helped ensure his safety over the last five years as Coalition forces vehemently hunted him down.
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