US Drone Kills Pak Taleban Chief Baitullah Mehsud
Aug 7th, 2009 | 2 responses
Baitullah Mehsud, 35, chief of Pakistan’s Taliban umbrella group, Tehrik-i-Taliban, was killed in a CIA missile strike inside Pakistan. Pakistan’s foreign minister says intelligence sources have confirmed Mehsud’s death, reports Voice of America.
Pakistani intelligence officers said that the militant commander, blamed for dozens of suicide bombings, including the fatal attack against the former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto, had been seriously ill with a kidney ailment, reports The Times of London.
“His death, a major coup for the US-led campaign against Islamist militants in the region…Although Islamabad publicly criticises the attacks, the CIA has carried out dozens of strikes in Pakistan using unmanned Predator and Reaper drones over the past year.
“Mehsud is thought to have had some 20,000 men under his command and a $5 million US bounty on his head after Washington branded him ‘a key al-Qaeda facilitator’. Only last month the US envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, branded him ‘one of the most dangerous and odious people in the entire region’.”
Catherine Philp, Diplomatic Correspondent, of The Times says: “It is too early to say what impact the death of Baitullah Mehsud might have on the Taleban insurgency in Pakistan. It will certainly have almost none on the battle next door for control of Afghanistan.
“While Mehsud forged alliances of convenience with al-Qaeda and the powerful Haqqani network fighting in eastern Afghanistan, his goal was the destabilisation and takeover of Pakistan.”
“Mehsud, however, leaves behind a strong network of deputies still committed to the fight and a force of between 10,000 and 20,000 fighters.
“Qari Hussain, one of Mehsud’s lieutenants, is the main overseer of the suicide bomb campaign and other high profile attacks inside Pakistan. The risk is that he could mastermind devastating revenge attacks for Mehsud’s death.”
Wikipedia recalls: “Mehsud entered into a ceasefire with Pakistani authorities on 8 February 2005. During the meeting at Sara rogha, the Pakistani military agreed to withdraw its troops from areas under Baitullah’s control. The removal did not include the paramilitary Frontier Corps, consisting mostly of fellow Pashtuns.
“In exchange, Baitullah’s followers would not attack government officials, impede development projects or allow foreign militants to operate within their territory. Mehsud was offered US$20 million for his cooperation in the ceasefire.
“He declined the money and told Pakistani authorities that they should use the pay-out to ‘compensate families who had suffered during the military operation.’ The ceasefire agreement ended in July 2005 when after accusing the government of reneging on the deal, Baitullah resumed attacks on security forces.”
In keeping with the mystery surrounding Mehsud’s life, neither the Pakistani military nor government officials are likely to have seen his body, reports FT. He was buried within hours of the attack, according to intelligence officials in the Waziristan region. More here…
2 Responses to “US Drone Kills Pak Taleban Chief Baitullah Mehsud”
In to the ash heap of history he goes.
Whom he was, nobody knows.
Does it matter if that ugly man is dead or not? Islam is worse than the Borg, kill one and another takes its place. There must be a better way of fighting Islam and its dogma. Short of nukes I am at a loss.
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