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Hakimullah Mehsud one with the ages?
The head of the Taliban in Pakistan, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed in a U.S. drone attack, Pakistan state television reported Sunday. The report stated Mehsud had been injured in a drone attack in the Shaktoi area January 14 and died three days later. He reportedly was buried in the village of Mamuzai in the North Waziristan region.
The Talibs have been saying this ain't so, but they haven't produced a walking, talking Hakimullah...
The Pakistani army said Sunday that it was investigating the reports.
"Yeah, we're asking around..."
The militant leader's death would be an important success for both Pakistan, which has been battling the Pakistani Taliban, and the U.S., which blames Mehsud for a recent deadly bombing against the CIA in Afghanistan.
We've been literally chasing him with drones since the CIA kaboom...
The army's announcement came shortly after Pakistani state television, citing unnamed "official sources," reported that Mehsud died in Orakzai, an area in Pakistan's northwest tribal region where he was reportedly being treated for his injuries. "We have these reports coming to us," army spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas told The Associated Press. "We are investigating whether it is true or wrong."
A severed head would be the best proof.
A tribal elder told the AP that he attended Mehsud's funeral in the Mamuzai area of Orakzai on Thursday. He said Mehsud was buried in Mamuzai graveyard after he died at his in-laws' home. The elder spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from the Taliban.
"Dey know I've talked, it's curtains fer me! So you dunno where you got it!"
Pakistani intelligence officials have said that Mehsud was targeted in a U.S. drone strike in South Waziristan on Jan. 14, triggering rumors that he had been injured or killed. The strike targeted a meeting of militant commanders in the Shaktoi area of South Waziristan. Mehsud issued two audio tapes after the strike denying the rumors. But Pakistani intelligence officials told the AP on Sunday that they have confirmation that the Taliban chief's legs and abdomen were wounded in the strike.
"Aaaiiieee! My legs!"
"What's the matter with your legs, chief?"
"I dunno. Pick 'em up and see. They're in the corner over there!"
Pakistani Taliban officials were not immediately available for comment, but low-level fighters have dismissed rumors of Mehsud's death in recent days as propaganda.
"Lies! All lies!"
The drone strike that targeted Mehsud came about two weeks after a deadly suicide bombing he helped orchestrate killed seven CIA employees at a remote base across the border in Afghanistan. Mehsud appeared in a video issued after the bombing sitting beside the Jordanian man who carried out the attack. The bomber, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, said he carried out the attack in retribution for the death of former Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud -- Hakimullah Mehsud's predecessor -- in a U.S. drone strike last August.
Whoa! Major cycle of violencing!
The U.S. refuses to talk about the covert CIA-run drone program in Pakistan
"We don't wanna talk about it."
but officials have said privately that the strikes have killed several senior Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders.
That kinda qualifies as this week's statement of the obvious. Not being allowed to tromp through the Tribal Areas with three or four divisions to kill bad guyz we're settling for zapping them one by one. It's a fairly effective vermin control measure.
Pakistani officials publicly protest the strikes as violations of the country's sovereignty, but U.S. officials say privately they support the program, especially when it targets militants like Mehsud who the government believes is a threat to the state.
"Yeah. You're never sure who you're gonna kill. Could be... ummm... innocent bystanders or somebody."
Mehsud, who has the reputation as a particularly ruthless militant, took over leadership of the Pakistani Taliban soon after Baitullah Mehsud's death. The 28 year-old militant leader has focused most of his attacks against targets inside Pakistan, but his men have also been blamed for attacking U.S. and NATO supply convoys traveling through the country en route to Afghanistan.
He's also allied with aql-Qaeda, who use his branch of the Talibs to do their bidding, which is mostly concerned with establishing free reign for themselves within the Tribal Areas.
Hakimullah Mehsud first appeared in public to journalists in November 2008, when he offered to take reporters in Orakzai on a ride in a U.S. Humvee taken from a supply truck headed to Afghanistan. He was the Pakistani Taliban's regional commander in the Orakzai, Khyber and Mohmand tribal areas before taking over the organization. He has taken responsibility for a wave of brazen strikes inside Pakistan, including the bombing of the Pearl Continental hotel in the northwestern city of Peshawar last June and the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore earlier that year.

The group stepped up its attacks after the Pakistani army invaded its stronghold of South Waziristan in mid-October. More than 600 people have been killed in attacks throughout the country since the ground offensive was launched. Authorities have said Mehsud has been behind threats to foreign embassies in Islamabad, and there is a $120,000 bounty on his head.
Posted by: Frank G 2010-01-31
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=289324