#5 WASHINGTON (AFP) - US defense officials said Wednesday they had no independent confirmation of reports that a top Taliban commander in Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud, has died. General David McKiernan, the commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan told reporters here he could not confirm the report, but called Mehsud "a very bad man."
Pakistani television reported that Mehsud, who is alleged to have been behind the December 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, had died overnight. Pakistani security officials and militant sources, however, said he was alive but seriously ill, possibly in a diabetic coma.
Spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Pentagon was aware of reports that Mehsud's health "was not that good, has not been that good for some time. Sometimes those reports, though, about guys like that and their health are exagerated. We've seen the same reports you have and have no independent confirmation of it," he said. |
Supreme Commander of the defunct Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan Baitullah Mehsud is dead, Geo News reported early on Wednesday. The TTP leader had been indisposed for quite some time. A few weeks ago he had survived a severe diabetic attack but again fell seriously ill three days back.