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bobdina
08-06-2009, 06:54 PM
ISLAMABAD – U.S. and Pakistani authorities are investigating reports that Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was killed in an American missile strike, officials from both countries said Friday.

If confirmed, Mehsud's demise would be a major boost to Pakistani and U.S. efforts to eradicate the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Mehsud is believed responsible for dozens of suicide attacks, beheadings and target killings in Pakistan. He is allied with al-Qaida and has been suspected in the killing of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Pakistan views him as its top internal threat and has been preparing an offensive against him. The U.S. sees him as a danger to the war effort in Afghanistan, largely because of the threat he is believed to pose to nuclear-armed Pakistan.

The missile strike hit the home of Mehsud's father-in-law in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal region early Wednesday. Intelligence officials say Mehsud's second wife was among at least two people killed, and Mehsud associates have claimed he was not among the dead.

Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas cautioned that the reports of Mehsud's death are still unconfirmed.

"We are receiving reports and probing," he said.

The U.S. government is also looking into the reports, according to a U.S. counterterrorism official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.

The counterterrorism official indicated that the United States did not yet have physical evidence — remains — that would prove who died. But he said there are other ways of determining who was killed in the strike. He declined to describe them.

For years, the U.S. has considered Mehsud a lesser threat to its interests than some of the other Pakistani Taliban, their Afghan counterparts and al-Qaida, because most of his attacks were focused inside Pakistan, not against U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

That view appeared to change in recent months as Mehsud's power grew and concerns mounted that increasing violence in Pakistan could destabilize the U.S. ally and threaten the entire region.

In March, the State Department authorized a reward of up to $5 million for the militant chief. And increasingly, American missile strikes — falling by the dozens over the past year — focused on Mehsud-related targets.

While Mehsud's death would be a big blow to the Taliban in Pakistan, he has deputies who could take his place. Whether a new leader could wreak as much havoc in Pakistan as Mehsud could depends largely on how much pressure the Pakistani military continues to put on the Taliban network, especially in South Waziristan.

Pakistan's record is spotty on that front. It has used both military action and truces to try to contain Mehsud over the years, but neither tactic seemed to work, despite billions in U.S. aid aimed at helping the Pakistanis tame the tribal areas.

Mehsud was not that prominent a militant when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001 after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to Mahmood Shah, a former security chief for the tribal regions. In fact, Mehsud has struggled against such rivals as Abdullah Mehsud, an Afghan war veteran who had spent time in U.S. custody in Guantanamo Bay.

A February 2005 peace deal with Mehsud appeared to give him room to consolidate and boost his troop strength tremendously, and within months dozens of pro-government tribal elders in the region were gunned down on his command.

In December 2007, Mehsud became the head of a new coalition called the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or Pakistan's Taliban movement. Under Mehsud's guidance, the group has killed hundreds of Pakistanis in suicide and other attacks. He is believed to have as many as 20,000 fighters at his beck and call, among them a steady supply of suicide bombers.

Analysts say the reason for Mehsud's rise in the militant ranks is his alliances with al-Qaida and other violent extremist groups. U.S. intelligence has said al-Qaida has set up its operational headquarters in Mehsud's South Waziristan stronghold and the neighboring North Waziristan tribal area.

Mehsud has no record of attacking targets abroad, although he has threatened to attack Washington.

However, he is suspected of being behind a 10-man cell arrested in Barcelona in January 2008 for plotting suicide attacks in Spain. Pakistan's former government and the CIA have named him as the prime suspect behind the December 2007 killing of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. He has denied a role.

He also has withstood threats from within Taliban ranks. A few weeks ago, Qari Zainuddin, the leader of a renegade Pakistani Taliban faction who had criticized Mehsud's tactics, was shot to death — allegedly on Mehsud's orders.

In June of this year, Pakistan said it would launch an offensive against Mehsud in South Waziristan.

In the weeks that have followed, the army has relied heavily on airstrikes to target areas under Mehsud's control, but it has never quite gone full-scale with the offensive. Meantime, the missile strikes continued, raising speculation that the U.S. might get him first.

Pakistan publicly opposes the missile strikes, saying they anger local tribes and make it harder for the army to operate. Still, many analysts suspect the two countries have a secret deal allowing the strikes.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090806/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan_taliban

Cruelbreed
08-06-2009, 06:58 PM
same guy whos wife was killed i'm assuming, prob in the same blast :D

bobdina
08-06-2009, 07:04 PM
Thats what I was thinking, if thats is the case I really could care less about the wife, but how many of these have turned out to be false reports.

Toki
08-06-2009, 09:01 PM
Please let it be true.

nastyleg
08-06-2009, 10:28 PM
if confirmed...break out the beer boys

bobdina
08-07-2009, 04:57 PM
updated 11:25 a.m. ET, Fri., Aug 7, 2009

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - Pakistan's Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who led a violent campaign of suicide attacks and assassinations against the Pakistani government, has been killed in a U.S. missile strike, Taliban commanders and Pakistani intelligence officials said Friday.

Mehsud's demise would be a major boost to Pakistani and U.S. efforts to eradicate the Taliban and al-Qaida, but would not necessarily deal a definitive blow to the Taliban in Pakistan. Mehsud has deputies who could step into his place.


Taliban commanders close to Mehsud told NBC that he had been killed along with his wife in a Wednesday’s missile attack on the home of his father-in-law in Pakistan's lawless tribal area. Intelligence officials working in the area told NBC there was a lot of "chatter" pointing to Mehsud's death, but no definitive evidence.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said intelligence showed Mehsud had been killed, but authorities would travel to the site to verify his death.

NBC reported that Mehsud was standing on the roof of the house along with his wife and brother when the missiles hit.

Baitullah, who has been suffering from diabetes and other ailments, was wearing a drip at the time because he has been under medical treatment, NBC said.

Pakistani and U.S. intelligence officials told The Associated Press that the CIA was behind the strike. All spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs described Mehsud as a murderous thug. "If he is dead, without a doubt, the people of Pakistan will be safer as a result," Gibbs said.

Successor?
Three Pakistani intelligence officials said the likeliest successor was Mehsud's deputy, Hakim Ullah, a commander known for recruiting and training suicide bombers. Two other prominent possibilities, the officials said, were Azmat Ullah and Waliur Rehman, also close associates of Mehsud.
Already, Taliban leaders were meeting to nominate Mehsud’s successor, NBC News reported.
The officials spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Whether a new leader could wreak as much havoc as Mehsud depends largely on how much pressure the Pakistani military continues to put on the network, especially in South Waziristan in Pakistan's tribal belt. The mountainous region has a leaky border with Afghanistan and fiercely independent, heavily armed tribes hostile to interference by outsiders. The Pashtun tribes from which the Taliban draws most of its fighters straddle both sides of the border.
Although Mehsud's stronghold in South Waziristan does not directly border Afghanistan, he was known to have ties to other commanders acting on the frontier and was believed to give refuge to Taliban fighters in Afghanistan who move freely back and forth across the border.

Mehsud has al-Qaida connections and has been suspected in the killing of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Pakistan views him as its top internal threat and has been preparing an offensive against him.

Image: Reading about Taliban leader's death
Fareed Khan / AP
Internally displaced people in Pakistan's troubled Swat Valley read newspapers carrying stories about the death of Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud on Friday.
For years, the U.S. considered Mehsud a lesser threat to its interests than some of the other Pakistani Taliban, their Afghan counterparts and al-Qaida, because most of his attacks were focused inside Pakistan, not against U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

That view appeared to change in recent months as Mehsud's power grew and concerns mounted that increasing violence in Pakistan could destabilize the U.S. ally and threaten the entire region.

The Pakistani intelligence officials said Mehsud's body was buried in the village of Nardusai in South Waziristan, near the site of the missile strike.

Another senior Pakistani intelligence official told The AP that phone and other communications intercepts — he would not be more specific — had led authorities to suspect Mehsud was dead, but stressed there was no definitive evidence yet.

An American counterterrorism official said the U.S. government was also looking into the reports. The official indicated the United States did not yet have physical evidence — remains — that would prove who died but said there were other ways of determining who was killed. He declined to describe them.

Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter publicly.

A local tribesman, who also spoke on condition his name not be used, said he attended the Taliban chief's funeral.

Toki
08-07-2009, 09:24 PM
Ding dong the mother fuker is dead.

CraneMan
08-08-2009, 05:05 AM
Burn in Hell you son of a bitch!!

ghost
08-08-2009, 11:26 AM
I've noticed that these US missile strikes in Pakistan(by UAVs, and such) are proving to be quite effective. The Pakistani government has even approved them, but in some other cases I see that they renounce the attacks..... Which is it? And yes, in some cases there were civilians killed, I am sure, and I understand their bitterness in that situation. But, they weren't doing shit about the problem, at the time. It's not until just recently that they've started to fight back.