No more jihad for them.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (NBC News) — Five Taliban commanders — including the Haqqani network’s No. 2 — were among nine people killed by a U.S. drone strike early Thursday, Pakistani security officials told NBC News.

Maulvi Ahmad Jan, a prominent adviser to Haqqani network leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, was among the dead after a religious school was targeted, according to a security official who was not authorized to speak publicly.

“Initially we thought that a suicide bomber had hit the madrasa but later we confirmed it was a drone attack,” the security official said.

As part of the wider Taliban movement, the Pakistan-based Haqqanis are among the United States’ most feared enemies in Afghanistan. They have been blamed for many of the more than 2,000 U.S. military deaths in the country.

Ahmad Jan was a senior commander with the group who did not work out in the field but helped to plan insurgency operations against U.S and Afghan forces according to Dr. Anatol Lieven of King’s College London.

Witness Amjad Hussain said dozens of the militants arrived shortly after the attack, encircling the site.Local residents told NBC News the drone fired four rockets into the madrasa in Pakistan’s Waziristan tribal region at 5:40 a.m. local time (7:40 p.m. Wednesday ET).