Taleban commander Baitullah Mehsud believed dead
(AP)
Baitullah Mehsud talks to the media in South Waziristan in 2008
Baitullah Mehsud, Pakistan’s top Taleban commander and the country’s most wanted man, is believed to have been killed in a US drone strike, a senior Pakistani official has said.
“He has most likely been killed in the strike, but we are still awaiting official confirmation,” a senior Pakistani official told The Times today.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the government has "information" that Mehsud is dead but not yet official confirmation. An intelligence officer in South Waziristan has claimed that Mehsud's funeral had already taken place.
"He was killed with his wife and he was buried in Nargosey," the officer told a news agency, referring to a tiny settlement about half a mile, from the site of the missile attack, believed carried out by a pilotless US drone aircraft.
Earlier this week it was claimed that the head of the Tehrik-e-Taliban militant group may have been killed when two missiles fired by a US drone on a house in Zangar village in South Waziristan. It was confirmed that one of Mehsud's two wives, who has not been named in accordance with local custom, was killed in the strike.
Pakistani and US authorities are investigating the claim that Mr Mehsud, who is suffering from a serious kidney ailment and has not been seen for several weeks, had also been killed in the strike. A local official told The Times today that it is a “high probability” he is dead.
According to the senior Pakistani official, messages intercepted by intelligence indicated that the Taleban have been “in a great panic” this week.
If confirmed, Mr Mehsud's demise would be a major boost to Pakistani and US efforts to eradicate the Taliban and al-Qaeda. His death would be a great setback to the militants who have expanded their influence in northwestern Pakistan.
Mr Mehsud has close links with al-Qaeda and has been accused of organising dozens of suicide attacks in Pakistan, including the one which killed the former premier Benazir Bhutto in December 2007.
The Taleban leader, who has a $US5 million bounty on his head, has been the target of repeated US strikes in recent months. According to Pakistani security officials, he narrowly escaped an attack on the funeral of a Taleban leader last month.
Mr Mehsud is the chief of Tehrik-e-Taliban, an outlawed Islamic militant group which is also involved in cross border attacks on US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Pakistani troops have blocked all supply routes to his area and are preparing for a ground assault on his stronghold. Pakistan’s air force jets regularly pound the tribal area bordering Afghanistan which Pakistani officials say has become the main centre of al Qaeda and Taleban activities.
Mr Mehsud is believed to have more than 20,000 fighters under his command, however recent missile strikes against him and his supporters have limited his ability to carry out terror attacks.
Publicly, Islamabad opposes US strikes, saying they violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment among the populace. Since August 2008, around 50 such strikes have killed more than 500 people.
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