LONDON — An American drone strike in Pakistan’s tribal belt late Thursday killed a senior militant commander wanted by the United States who was implicated in a long-running kidnapping drama involving an American soldier, Pakistani officials and militant commanders said on Friday.

The commander, Sangeen Zadran, was a leading figure in the Haqqani network, a pro-Taliban group that uses Pakistan to mount high-profile attacks against Western and Afghan targets inside Afghanistan. In August 2011, the United States placed Mr. Zadran on its list of global terrorists.

But Mr. Zadran also played a prominent role in the capture of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, an American soldier who disappeared from his post in eastern Afghanistan in 2009 and has been held by the Haqqani network ever since.

Mr. Zadran appeared in a video alongside Sergeant Bergdahl in 2010 and was thought to have been his captor for some time. It is unclear, however, whether the American soldier was under Mr. Zadran’s control at the time of the commander’s death, or what impact the killing would have on the years of efforts to secure Sergeant Bergdahl’s release.