The terrorist group Haqqani Network began appearing in the reports of intelligence agencies operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2004-2005. The name of the network is associated with the name of the field commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, who fought against the Soviet troops.
During the stay of Soviet troops in Afghanistan, Jalaluddin Haqqani was a well-known field commander, he was supported by the US Central Intelligence Agency, providing financial assistance.
After the withdrawal of Soviet troops, the civil war in Afghanistan continued. Haqqani has been involved in several major operations, his authority has grown significantly. In 1992, he took part in peace negotiations between the warring parties, then became the Minister of Justice of Afghanistan and held this post for four years.
After the capture of Kabul by the Taliban in 1996, Haqqani defected to their side and was appointed Minister of Border Affairs. In practice, this led to the fact that he completely controlled the province of Paktia, which housed the al-Qaeda training camps that were later destroyed by the Americans. After the start of the US operation against the Taliban, Haqqani began to command their armed forces, but could not resist the invaders. The Taliban were defeated, Haqqani began to wage guerrilla warfare and was soon named by the Americans as one of the six most wanted terrorists of the Taliban.
Haqqani's actions against government forces and the US Army were very successful, since the mid-2000s, reports from Afghanistan began to mention the "Haqqani Network", which indicated the increased influence of this warlord. Since 2006, along with Haqqani, his son Sirajuddin (Siraj) has been in charge of the network. Since 2007, it was Siraj who ruled the group in connection with the deteriorating health of his father. Closely associated with the Taliban, the Haqqani terrorist group nevertheless operated independently and never submitted to anyone.
Soon, the leadership of the "Haqqani Network" already included several members of the family of its founder and a number of field commanders, the group controlled several provinces of Afghanistan. Since 2008, the group began to use suicide bombers to carry out terrorist attacks, the US authorities began to view it as posing the greatest threat to American troops in Afghanistan. According to the intelligence services, the number of members of the network in 2010 ranged from 4 to 15 thousand people. It was difficult to more accurately estimate the number of militants due to the closed nature of the group.
Since 2008, the son of the group's founder, Siraj Haqqani, has been included by the United States in the list of terrorists; since 2009, a reward of $ 5 million has been announced for information about him. In the following years, Nasiruddin Haqqani, Khalil al-Rahman Haqqani and Badruddin Haqqani were added to the terrorist list.
For a long time, the US authorities hesitated to officially include the "Haqqani Network" in the number of terrorist groups, as they still hoped to come to an agreement with the leaders of such an influential movement. The country's intelligence services even held meetings with representatives of the network, but they failed to reach any agreements.
The situation finally cleared up in September 2011, when terrorists from the Haqqani Network attacked NATO forces headquarters and the US embassy in Kabul. 16 people became victims of the attack. It became clear that it would not be possible to reach an agreement with the terrorists, and in September 2012, the United States announced that the Haqqani Network had been added to the list of terrorist groups.
