Oct 16, 2014 3 min read

KABUL, Afghanistan – The Afghan intelligence service said Thursday that it had arrested two senior leaders of the Haqqani Network, a Taliban-allied group that has carried out some of the most brazen attacks on Western and Afghan targets in Afghanistan in recent years.

Anas Haqqani, a son of the group’s founder, Jalaluddin Haqqani, and Hafiz Rashid, a senior commander who coordinated suicide bombings, were arrested in an operation in Khost province, along the border with Pakistan, on Tuesday night, the National Directorate of Security announced.

The spy agency released mug shots of the two men and, in a statement, described their arrests as a major coup.

The Haqqani Network is one of the most potent elements of the Taliban insurgency, demonstrating a ruthless flair in mounting ambitious attacks on high-profile targets. In recent years its fighters and suicide bombers have attacked the InterContinental Hotel, the U.S. Embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul, and an American base in Wardak province.

The group’s success stems partly from its ability to straddle the border with Pakistan, where it operates with apparent impunity from the tribal district of North Waziristan – a source of much frustration among American and Afghan officials.

Anas Haqqani is not a well-known commander of the group, which is run by his brother, Sirajuddin Haqqani. The intelligence agency provided little information about the operation that led to his capture, describing him as someone who had directed Haqqani Network propaganda efforts on social media, and who played a key role in strategic decision-making.

Anas Haqqani, the agency said, had also raised money for the Haqqani Network in Gulf countries – a major source of revenue since the guerrilla war against Soviet-occupied Afghanistan in the 1980s, when the Haqqanis were a key ally of both the United States and Saudi Arabia.

The agency described Rashid as a senior military commander who had equipped suicide bombers, chosen their targets and moved them from safe houses in Pakistan across the border into Afghanistan.

Rashid’s brother, Mohammad Nuri Omari, was one of five detainees who were transferred from the American prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to Qatar last June, as part of a deal to secure the release of the captured American soldier Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

The Haqqanis have suffered major leadership losses in the past, only to continue operations. One of the network’s deputy leaders, Nasiruddin Haqqani, was shot dead on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, in November 2013. A year earlier, an American drone strike in North Waziristan killed his brother, Badruddin Haqqani, who was considered the group’s operational commander.