KABUL, Afghanistan — An airstrike in southeastern Afghanistan killed an insurgent leader who was involved in organizing the suicide assault on the Intercontinental Hotel here Tuesday, NATO officials said.
The airstrike was carried out on Wednesday in the Gardez district of Paktia Province, and it killed Ismal Jan and several other fighters from the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based insurgent group allied with the Taliban, according to a statement from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
The statement described Mr. Jan as a deputy to the top Haqqani leader inside Afghanistan, Hajji Mali Khan. It added that “the security force tracked his location after receiving several intelligence reports from Afghan government officials, Afghan citizens and disenfranchised insurgents.” Initial reports indicated that no civilians were harmed, it said.
Responsibility for the attack on the hotel, in which 21 people died, including the nine suicide bombers involved, was claimed by a spokesman for the Taliban, but that is often the case with Haqqani network attacks. The Haqqani network has longstanding ties with Pakistan’s intelligence agency.
The international forces said that Mr. Jan was suspected of providing material support for the attack on the Intercontinental Hotel, which was stormed by heavily armed insurgents wearing suicide vests.
After arriving from Pakistan in 2010, the coalition forces said, Mr. Jan was active in the Khost and Gardez Pass areas along the Afghan-Pakistani border, where he led 25 to 35 fighters.
“The Haqqani network, in conjunction with Taliban operatives, was responsible for the Tuesday night attack on Kabul Intercontinental Hotel,” the coalition said.
The Haqqani network is believed to have been responsible for many of the high-profile attacks in Kabul in recent years, and Afghan officials have repeatedly complained that Pakistanis have done little to restrain the group.
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