Death of Senior Taliban Members Continues Amid Drone Strikes on Pakistan-Afghanistan Border

In the second consecutive round of recent drone strikes attributed to the U.S. military, several senior commanders of the Taliban group have been killed on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. It was reported yesterday that 20 members of the 'Haqqani Network' were killed. At the same time, over 70 people have been killed in Taliban attacks in Afghanistan. The report of the recent attack on October 17 was published a day after a similar attack in the tribal area of Kurram, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, very close to the Afghan border, where at least 20 members of the extremist 'Haqqani Network' were killed. Basir Khan Wazir, a senior administrative official in Kurram, told Reuters that drones fired missiles at a Taliban hideout, killing at least 31 people over two days of attacks. Sources within the Taliban have told Reuters that 24 members of the 'Haqqani Network' were killed. This group, which has its main base in Pakistan, is responsible for a significant portion of deadly attacks following the Taliban's fall in Afghanistan. An Afghan government official told the Associated Press that the latest round of drone strikes on October 17 killed 35 Taliban members. This official added that among the dead were several senior Taliban members, including Abubakar, one of the group's commanders in Pakistan. The spokesperson for the Paktia provincial governor in Afghanistan told the Associated Press that in addition to the dead, 15 militants were also injured. Mujib Rahman Chamkani, a member of the Afghan parliament from Paktia, also told the same news agency that the recent attack occurred while the Taliban were collecting the bodies of militants killed in the previous day's attack. Paktia province itself was the scene of suicide attacks and armed clashes at a police command center yesterday, resulting in over 40 deaths and 150 injuries. The attacks in Paktia occurred on Tuesday morning at the police command center in Gardez. On the same day, an attack also took place in Ghazni, a neighboring province of Paktia, which led to the deaths of at least 30 people, including several security forces and civilians, and injured 10 others. In the first case, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, and in the second, they were also accused of carrying out the attack. Security officials say the drone attack in the Kurram tribal area targeted members of the 'Haqqani Network' and Abubakar. Other officials have also stated that the number of 'Haqqani Network' members present at the targeted location indicates that this site was one of their main centers in the region. The Haqqani Network was established by Jalaluddin Haqqani in the 1980s during the height of the conflict with the former Soviet Union, reportedly with the cooperation of the United States and Pakistan. Recently, AFP reported that Rabbani himself had met with a member of the U.S. Congress at that time. Ahmad Saidi, a diplomat of the Afghan government in Pakistan, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that 'in the early days, Haqqani had very close relations with the U.S. and worked for U.S. interests, but now he is working against U.S. interests, and the U.S. is also seeking to overthrow him.' The United States currently considers the Haqqani Network a terrorist group and has repeatedly targeted this group in North Waziristan, Pakistan. Afghanistan, on the other hand, says Pakistan is not taking serious action to combat this group, and several officials in Kabul also say that the destruction of this network is not possible without Islamabad's cooperation.