| Hakimullah killed in US drone strike 
* Bodyguard and deputy of TTP chief also killed as drones fire four missiles at a compound in Danda Darpa Khel village of Miranshah
* Security officials says 25 people killed in strike
ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR: Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud was killed by a US drone strike on Friday, security sources and a senior Taliban commander said, in a major blow to the country's most feared militant group.
Mehsud was one of Pakistan's most wanted men with a $5 million US bounty on his head. He led an increasingly violent insurgency from a secret hideout in North Waziristan, the Taliban's mountainous stronghold on the Afghan border.
"We confirm with great sorrow that our esteemed leader was martyred in a drone attack," a senior Taliban commander said.
Several intelligence, army and Taliban sources across Pakistan confirmed Mehsud, believed to be in his mid-30s, had been killed in the drone strike in North Waziristan.
Drones fired four missiles at a compound in Danda Darpa Khel, a village about five kilometres from the regional capital of Miranshah, killing at least four people, sources said. A senior security official told AFP on condition of anonymity that a US drone fired missiles targeting a vehicle at the main gate of the compound, killing four militants. "It was a Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan compound which was in use of top TTP commander" Mehsud, he added. Four security officials also confirmed Mehsud's death to Reuters. His bodyguard and driver were also killed, they said. "Among the dead, who are in large numbers, are Hakimullah's personal bodyguard Tariq Mehsud and his driver Abdullah Mehsud, two of his closest people," said one intelligence source.
Mehsud was killed after attending a gathering of 25 Taliban leaders gathering to discuss the government's offer of talks, security officials said.
The information could not be independently verified because journalists have no access to the affected areas.
Mehsud's funeral will be held today (Saturday) in Miranshah, the Taliban commander said – a high-profile event likely to stir tensions further in the already highly volatile region. The death of a man whose name became synonymous with the escalating insurgency in the nuclear-armed nation of 180 million people is the latest in a series of setbacks for the Pakistani Taliban. In May, a drone strike killed Mehsud's second-in-command, and one of his most trusted lieutenants was captured in Afghanistan last month.
The death also follows months of debate over potential peace talks between the Taliban and the new government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who won a landslide election victory in May, promising to quash the insurgency.
Mehsud took over the Pakistani Taliban in August 2009 after a drone strike killed the previous leader, his mentor. His Pakistani Taliban act as an umbrella for various jihadist groups who are separate but allied to the Afghan Taliban.
The government issued its usual statement denouncing the drone strike but did not comment on reports of Mehsud's death.
Shortly after the attack, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan termed the attack an attempt to sabotage the government's plan to hold talks with the Taliban.
The US had offered $5 million for Mehsud's capture after he appeared in a farewell video with the Jordanian suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees at a base in Afghanistan in 2009.
US prosecutors have charged him with involvement in the attack. Although Mehsud's death will spark calls for revenge, it may make negotiations with the militants easier in the long-run, said Saifullah Mahsud, director of the Pakistani think-tank FATA Research Center.
"Hakimullah Mehsud was a very controversial figure and he had very tough demands," he said. But the strike did not signal the end of the Pakistani Taliban, he said. "It's a very decentralised organisation. They've lost leaders to drone strikes before."
Friday's strike came a day after three insurgents were killed in another drone strike that also targeted a rebel compound near Miranshah. North Waziristan is one of seven semi-autonomous tribal regions in Pakistan. Washington considers these areas a major hub of Taliban and al Qaeda militants plotting attacks on the West and in Afghanistan.
Mehsud's killing comes a week after Nawaz Sharif urged US President Barack Obama to stop drone strikes during a meeting in Washington. agencies
|
No comments:
Post a Comment