Evidence grows that Pakistani Taliban leader is dead
By Haq Nawaz Khan and Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, February 1, 2010; 12:04 PM
washingtonpost.com
PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN -- Evidence mounted Monday that the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, an extremist Islamic militia with close links to al Qaeda and a record of major suicide bombings, has died of burns and other injuries he received during a recent U.S. missile strike in Pakistan's northwest tribal region.
The death of Hakimullah Mehsud, first reported Sunday on Pakistani state television, has not been confirmed by Pakistani officials, and Taliban spokesmen continued to deny it Monday. But one government official said it was "80 per cent" certain Mehsud had died. In addition, both a tribal leader and a Taliban official, speaking on condition of anonymity, gave similar descriptions of the militia leader's severe injuries after the mid-January missile strike.
Mehsud's apparent demise, coming less than six months after the killing of his predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, in another U.S. drone missile attack, leaves the once-predatory and feared militia effectively decapitated and its fighters on the run from the Pakistan army, which has driven them from both the Swat Valley and the South Waziristan tribal area.
Analysts in Pakistan said it would be extremely difficult for the Taliban to recover from the loss of both leaders, especially given the precipitous decline in public support for the militia and its increasing isolation from elders of the Mehsud tribe, who are now negotiating with the government to hand over surviving Taliban commanders.
"If he's gone, it's a fatal blow," said Imtiaz Gul, director of the Center for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad. "At one point the Taliban had a lot of momentum and a charismatic leader. Now they've been uprooted and lost all credibility."
Intelligence officials, however, name Wali ur-Rehman, military strategist for the Pakistani Taliban, and Qari Hussain, who trains suicide bombers, as possible successors to run the organization.
Gul said revelations that Mehsud had been involved in a devastating suicide attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan in December was "a real turning point. He became a prime target."
The bombing killed five CIA officials, two agency contractors and a Jordanian intelligence officer. The bomber, a Jordanian, made a video before his death in which he was shown with Hakimullah Mehsud and called on Muslims to avenge the death of Baitullah Mehsud.
After the bombing, U.S. drone strikes intensified against Taliban and al Qaeda targets. The Taliban's senior strategist, Qarimullah Mehsud, was also reportedly wounded in a drone attack in mid-January and may have been killed too.
Pakistani state television broadcast news of Hakimullah Mehsud's death Sunday and said he had been buried in the Orakzai tribal agency. A senior White House official later said he was "95 percent" certain that Mehsud had been killed. A senior U.S. military official said he also believed Mehsud was dead. But other U.S. officials said the reports still needed to be investigated.
"While I can't confirm reports of Hakimullah's demise, here's to hoping they're true," said a senior U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. "This is one of the worst people on the planet."
Hakimullah Mehsud, believed to be in his late 20s, has been closely associated with al-Qaeda and coordinated with the international terrorist network in launching strikes, including the December attack on the CIA camp. His leadership of the Pakistani Taliban has been marked by audacious acts of violence and a growing interconnection with other extremist groups across the country. Mehsud has been described as a daredevil driver, a ruthless killer and an articulate advocate for the Pakistani Taliban's strategic goal of waging war against the Pakistani army in order to carve out an ethnic Pashtun Islamic emirate.
Unlike the Afghan Taliban, which focuses its attacks on U.S., NATO and Afghan forces in Afghanistan, the Pakistani Taliban has trained its weapons on Pakistani government, military and civilian sites with the aim of destabilizing this nuclear-armed nation.
Pakistan had once nurtured the Taliban, but since last summer the Pakistani army has mounted a sustained operation against the Pakistani branch of the movement. The Pakistani Taliban is believed to have carried out dozens of suicide attacks across the country, including the bombings of two major hotels, public markets, and a variety of military and police targets.
Although the army drove the Taliban out of the Swat Valley and the South Waziristan tribal area, it has refused to pursue fleeing militants into North Waziristan despite U.S. pressure. Meanwhile, although militant attacks have continued, officials have been attempting to negotiate with the Taliban through tribal elders.
For several years, the United States has been carrying out missile strikes from unmanned aerial vehicles in the semiautonomous tribal region that hugs the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The program, which is not officially acknowledged, has been a major source of controversy in Pakistan. But but U.S. and Pakistani officials speaking anonymously have touted its effectiveness in eliminating key al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders.
Shortly after Baitullah Mehsud's death, Hakimullah Mehsud -- from the same clan as Baitullah but not a close relative -- was reported to have been killed in a squabble over who would take over the Pakistani Taliban. Those reports proved erroneous.
One Pakistani official said Sunday that his government was being careful in announcing the leader's death this time because "we don't want to look like fools again." The official said analysis of DNA records would be needed to make a definitive claim.
Hakimullah Mehsud also was reported to have been killed or wounded in a Jan. 14 drone strike on a militant compound, but he then issued two statements saying he was alive. A strike on Jan. 17 that hit two vehicles was also said to have wounded him. There were unconfirmed reports Sunday that tribal elders in Orakzai said he had been taken there and buried four days earlier.
A military intelligence official in South Waziristan, reached by telephone late Sunday, said he had heard reports that Mehsud had died in Orakzai, where he apparently has relatives, after suffering serious injuries. "We are not sure of the reports. Only after getting solid proof can we say something," the official said.
Other sources in the tribal area said another Taliban leader might have been killed, leading to confusion about Mehsud's possible death. The sources also said, however, that if Mehsud were still alive and able to speak, he would probably issue a statement in the next day or two.
A Taliban source, contacted by phone in North Waziristan early Monday, insisted that Mehsud is still alive and expressed annoyance with the repeated reports of his death in recent weeks.
"Some of our friends have seen him," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "It is not possible he has been moved to Orakzai because of the drone surveillance. He is somewhere between Mohmand and South Waziristan."
Khan, a special correspondent, reported from Peshawar. Staff writers Scott Wilson, Karen DeYoung and Joby Warrick in Washington and Joshua Partlow in Kabul contributed to this report. |
