WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s ongoing military operation in North Waziristan has helped disrupt the Haqqani network’s ability to launch attacks on Afghan territory, says a top US general.

In a Pentagon-hosted video briefing from Afghanistan on Wednesday evening, Lt-Gen Joe Anderson said the Haqqani network was still “one of the many threat streams” that continued to affect the US presence in Afghanistan.

But like the Taliban, this network too was “fractured” now, said the general and credited Pakistan’s military operation in North Waziristan for weakening this lethal force.

“They are fractured. They are fractured like the Taliban is. That’s based pretty much on the Pakistan operations in North Waziristan this entire summer-fall,” said Gen Anderson.

“That has very much disrupted their efforts here and has caused them to be less effective in terms of their ability to pull off an attack here in Kabul.”

Pakistan launched the offensive — Operation Zarb-i-Azb — in June this year, eliminating a large number of terrorists in North Waziristan.

Recently, Pakistan also extended its operations to other tribal areas, bombing and destroying terrorist hideouts along the Afghan border.

Gen Anderson, who assumed command of the US-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan in January, differed substantially from a report the Pentagon sent to Congress earlier this week, accusing Pakistan of running a proxy war against India in Afghanistan.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2014