ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A missile believed to have been fired Thursday from an American drone killed the younger brother of a top militant commander in the North Waziristan tribal area, according to several Pakistani security and intelligence officials, residents in Waziristan and a friend of the commander’s family.
The militant commander, Sirajuddin Haqqani, appeared to have been the target of the attack. Mr. Haqqani, who the Americans say operates from a base in North Waziristan, took over major responsibilities for the family’s militant network in recent years from his father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, who has been reported to be ill. The Americans blame the Haqqani network for helping plan the suicide bombing against the C.I.A. base in Afghanistan in December in which C.I.A. operatives and a Jordanian intelligence officer were killed.
The brother, Mohammad Haqqani, was killed along with three others when their white station wagon was hit by a missile in Dande Darpakhel, a village in North Waziristan, bordering Afghanistan. Americans believe that Sirajuddin Haqqani is closely affiliated with Al Qaeda and that his network is the most potent one working against international forces in eastern and central Afghanistan.
Dande Darpakhel is just north of Miram Shah, the capital of North Waziristan, and is considered the main base of the Haqqani network and family. It has been a repeated target of missile strikes, one of which was believed to have killed several members of the clan last year.
According to a family friend of the Haqqanis, Mohammad Haqqani was killed on his way to see his brother, the commander. The family friend in the village said that Mohammad Haqqani, who was about 20, was not an active member of the militant network and that his brother had wanted him to pursue religious studies away from the area so he could lead a more normal life.
Sirajuddin Haqqani has subcommanders threaded throughout eastern and southern Afghanistan. His fighters control Paktika, Paktia and Khost Provinces in Afghanistan, which lie close to North Waziristan and are also strong elsewhere, Pakistani security officials said.
The United States is pressing Pakistan to act more aggressively against the Haqqani network, but Pakistan has so far resisted; it considers the group more of an asset than a threat because it operates primarily in Afghanistan. It sees Mr. Haqqani and his control of large areas of Afghan territory as vital to Pakistan in the jostling for influence that will pit Pakistan, India, Russia, China and Iran against one another in the Afghan arena after the Americans withdraw, Pakistani officials said.
Pakistan is particularly eager to counter the growing influence of its archenemy, India, which is pouring $1.2 billion in aid into Afghanistan.
Mr. Haqqani has 4,000 to 12,000 Taliban fighters under his command. He is technically a member of the Afghan Taliban leadership based in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan Province in Pakistan.
That leadership is headed by Mullah Muhammad Omar, the former head of the Taliban regime. But Mr. Haqqani operates somewhat independently of those leaders inside Afghanistan.
The strike intended for Mr. Haqqani came shortly after American and Pakistani security forces arrested Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a deputy to Mullah Omar, in a joint raid last month in the Pakistani port city of Karachi. Two of the Taliban’s shadow governors were later arrested on the information provided by Mullah Baradar, Pakistani officials said.
The United States has stepped up its use of missile strikes from C.I.A.-operated drones in Pakistan’s lawless tribal area against suspected Taliban and Qaeda targets and have killed some of the top commanders in recent months. The drones are focusing on North Waziristan because of the presence of a large number of local and foreign fighters allied with Al Qaeda there and also because of the Pakistani government’s reluctance to undertake an operation there.
One such drone strike killed the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, last year while another one recently was aimed at his successor, Hakimullah Mehsud. The fate of Hakimullah Mehsud, whose network is believed to have played the leading role in the attack in Afghanistan against the C.I.A., is still shrouded in confusion, with conflicting reports about whether he is alive.
