US hunt for Haqqani nightmare for Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The United States will push Pakistan hard to take the risky move of going after the Haqqani militant network if the group is linked to a Jordanian who killed seven CIA employees in Afghanistan.
No evidence may emerge that the Qaeda-linked Haqqani network - high on the CIAs hit list - provided any support for the suspected suicide bomber from its northwestern Pakistani stronghold on the border with Afghanistan.
But the slightest suspicion that the Afghan group merely showed him hospitality in its redoubts will undoubtedly lead to a far higher degree of US pressure on Pakistan to take out the Haqqani network, possibly straining ties between the allies.
Islamabad has resisted past relentless Washington pressure to dismantle the network headed by Jalaluddin Haqqani.
Pakistan sees Haqqani as likely to be a valuable asset in Afghanistan if US troops leave, as Islamabad anticipates, before the country is stabilised.
And Pakistan officials, facing the countrys own growing Taliban insurgency, argue Haqqani has not attacked the Pakistani state. So he should be left alone.
After the huge blow to the CIA, however, Washington is more likely to dismiss Pakistans strategic concerns and push the government harder to take out Haqqani as the United States prepares to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.
The CIA never suffered such big losses. They will not only take revenge locally, they will put pressure on Pakistan to take action against this group, said Rahimullah Yusufzai, a veteran journalist and expert on militant affairs.
Investigators were exploring leads, including possible links between the bomber, a Jordanian recruited by Jordanian intelligence to try to infiltrate al-Qaeda, and Haqqanis network, current and former US intelligence officials said.
Haqqanis followers and their Taliban allies have carried out numerous attacks with a growing degree of sophistication in Khost province, where the bombing at the Forward Operating Base Chapman took place.
American and Pakistani interests have always been difficult to balance. Critics say the United States sees Pakistan as a front-line state in its war on terror and expects it to give in to every demand, despite high domestic political costs.
Pakistan says it has done more than any other country to end terrorism and its people have suffered the most.
Greater US expectations would be politically explosive. Anti-American sentiment is running high in large part because of US pilotless drone aircraft attacks on militants in Pakistan. Deeply unpopular President Asif Ali Zardari is in no position to manage any new political crises sparked by what many Pakistanis would view as interference if Americans made a strong push for more Pakistani cooperation on Haqqani.
The United States might overlook these potentially explosive issues as it scrambles to hunt down whoever may have been behind the suicide bombing attack on a vital CIA operation.
Already there have been an unusually high number of drone strikes since the CIA incident.
Washington may decide - with or without Pakistans consent - to intensify the drone hits in North Waziristan, where Haqqani operates.
But that could hurt Pakistans fight against its own Taliban insurgents, who are extending their reach in the country and have killed hundreds of people in bombings since October.
It should be remembered that the war against the Pakistani Taliban includes ceasefires with various tribal leaders who are resident in North Waziristan, said Ahmed Rashid, an author of books on the Taliban.
And Pakistan will be very nervous about US drone strikes that would not just hit Haqqani but hit these tribal leaders.
The United States is well aware of Haqqanis capabilities. He rose to prominence during the 1980s, receiving weapons and funds from the CIA and Saudi Arabia to fight Soviet forces occupying Afghanistan. Effective leadership of the group has passed from the ailing Jalaluddin, who is in his 70s, to his eldest son Sirajuddin, security analysts say.