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Stream of Reports Say Pakistani Taliban Leader Died in Drone Strike
European Pressphoto Agency
Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, center, spoke to journalists in Pakistan in 2008.
By DECLAN WALSH, IHSANULLAH TIPU MEHSUD and ISMAIL KHAN
Published: November 1, 2013
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Graphic The Drone Strike Capital of the World
Related
- Civilian Deaths in Drone Strikes Cited in Report (October 22, 2013)
- Pakistani Premier Meets Obama to Mend Ties (October 24, 2013)
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If confirmed, his death would be a major achievement for the covert C.I.A. program at a time when drones have come under renewed scrutiny over civilian casualties in both Pakistan and the United States.
It would also offer relief to many Pakistanis. Under Mr. Mehsud’s leadership the Pakistani Taliban – a group that is related to the Afghan Taliban, but which operates independently – has killed thousands of civilians and civilians in Pakistan, mostly through suicide bombings. Mr. Mehsud, a showy and ruthless leader, had a $5 million United States government bounty on his head.
While prior reports of his death have proved false, there was a proliferation of accounts of his death on Friday from multiple sources, including the militants and an American military official, within hours of the missile attack.
“Hakimullah has been martyred,” said a local Taliban commander, speaking by phone from the tribal belt on condition of anonymity.
The White House and the C.I.A. declined to comment. But an American defense official with knowledge of the strike said the United States was confident of Mr. Mehsud’s demise.
The Americans tracking Mr. Mehsud were “nearly certain” of his location ahead of the strike, the American official said, and collected intelligence afterwards that led them to conclude he was dead.
The television network Al Jazeera quoted the Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid as confirming Mr. Mehsud’s death.
The C.I.A. killed Mr. Mehsud’s predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, in South Waziristan tribal agency in August 2009. Friday’s strike occurred in Danday Darpakhel, a well-known militant stronghold in North Waziristan tribal agency, near the Afghan border.
Pakistani officials said that C.I.A.-operated drones fired at least four missiles at compound that had been built for Mr. Mehsud about a year ago, and which he had used intermittently since then.
One Pakistani official, citing intelligence reports, said five militants had been killed including Mr. Mehsud, his uncle and a bodyguard. Another two people were wounded.
The Pakistani official said the drone strike also killed Mr. Mehsud’s deputy, Abdullah Behar, who had just taken over from Latif Mahsud, a militant commander who was detained by American forces in Afghanistan last month.
Tribesmen said they planned to bury Mr. Mehsud on Saturday, when the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, is due to return to Pakistan from London, where he has been holding talks with British officials and the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai.
His death could also throw into disarray controversial plans by Mr. Sharif’s government to engage in peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban.
A delegation of three clerics from Punjab province that had been handpicked by Mr. Sharif had been due to travel to the tribal belt on Saturday to initiate talks with the Pakistani Taliban and two other militant groups. The group had now been stopped from proceeding, a senior security official said.
Mr. Mehsud’s death would also represent payback, of sorts, for the C.I.A.: Mr. Mehsud orchestrated a major suicide bombing against a C.I.A. base in eastern Afghanistan in 2009 that killed seven Americans and two other people.
Shortly after that attack, Mr. Mehsud appeared in a triumphant pre-recorded video with the suicide bomber, a Jordanian doctor named Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi. In the weeks that followed, the C.I.A. launched a flurry of drone attacks, one of which was initially reported to have killed Mr. Mehsud.
The reports of Mr. Mehsud’s death on Friday met an uneasy welcome across Pakistan.
Some celebrated the demise of a ruthless militant responsible for much suffering, and who had evaded long-standing Pakistani efforts to capture or kill him.
