https://www.wsj.com/articles/our-friends-the-haqqanis-afghanistan-taliban-11631053019?mod=opinion_lead_pos2
The Biden Administration and other democracies have been beseeching the triumphant Taliban not to behave like they did when they last ran Afghanistan before 9/11 and harbored al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. On Tuesday the Taliban gave their first response, naming a new government that includes Sirajuddin Haqqani as interior minister.
This is, literally, putting a jihadist terrorist in charge of internal security. Mr. Haqqani is on the FBI’s most wanted list, and the U.S. is offering up to $10 million for information leading to his arrest.
The FBI says it wants to question him in connection with a January 2008 attack on a hotel in Kabul that killed six people, including one American. The Haqqani Network he runs is also accused of plotting a 2011 suicide truck bomb in Wardak province that killed 77 American soldiers, as well as a 19-hour siege of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul the same year.
The Haqqani Network was founded by his father, who had a close relationship with bin Laden. In 2012 the Obama Administration officially designated the Haqqani Network as a terrorist organization. The ties between the Haqqani Network and al Qaeda are long and extensive, as Seth Jones describes nearby.
“The Haqqanis are considered the most lethal and sophisticated insurgent group targeting US, Coalition, and Afghan forces in Afghanistan,” says a description by the U.S. counterterrorism center. “They typically conduct coordinated small-arms assaults coupled with rocket attacks, IEDs, suicide attacks, and attacks using bomb-laden vehicles.”