Jalaluddin Haqqani, pictured here, is the group founder and father of Badruddin, who may have been killed Tuesday. (Wikimedia Commons)

According to the Associated Press, a spokesman for Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security countered the Taliban's claims that Badruddin Haqqani was alive and well. 

"A number of media have reported that Badruddin Haqqani has been killed," a Taliban spokesman wrote in an email to reporters Saturday. "[He] is in the country and is occupied with his operational responsibilities… The rumor about him being killed is more propaganda of the enemy."

Haqqani, considered the "day-to-day operations commander," was the son of the groups' founder, Jalaluddin Haqqani. The son is largely believed to be the man responsible for the 2008 kidnapping of New York Times journalist David Rohde.

Among his other responsibilities: coordinating foreign suicide bomb attacks, maintaining relations with insurgent groups and recruiting Pakistani fighters to join Haqqani network.

A vital part of the group's structure, Haqqani still likely has a number of underlings waiting to step into his place.

Read the full story here, and more of Neon Tommy's Taliban coverage here.

Reach Executive Producer Catherine Green here; follow her here.