Afghan terror group founder dies

Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder the Afghan Haqqani terrorism network, died Monday in Afghanistan after years of bad health, a Taliban spokesman confirmed Tuesday. Haqqani, who was 71, was one of the Afghan warriors backed by the United States in the 1980s to combat the former Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. In 2012, the United States declared the network a terrorist organization.

Haqqani was paralyzed for the past 10 years, and rumors of his death circulated in 2015. Due to his ill health, Haqqani’s son Sirajuddin Haqqani took over control of the network. The younger Haqqani is also the deputy head of the Afghan Taliban. The Haqqani network operates out of Pakistan’s North Waziristan region. Afghan officials blamed the group for a 2017 truck bombing in Kabul, the Afghan capital, that killed more than 150 people and injured more than 400 others.