Pakistani Taliban Group, Tehreek-e-Taliban, Claims Responsibility for Times Square Bomb Plot

Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud is dead, top Pakistani government officials and Taliban leaders confirmed Wednesday, though some figures in the Al Qaeda-linked network deny the claim.

Rumors have swirled about Mr. Mehsuds status since he was reported to have died from injuries sustained in a US drone strike in mid-January. If the reports are confirmed, his death would mark the second Pakistani Taliban leader killed by the US in six months. Similar confusion also surrounded the death of the previous commander, Baitullah Mehsud.

The Associated Press reports that Pakistans interior minister and a senior intelligence official confirmed that Mehsud, who was in his late 20s, had died, though neither gave details about his death. I have credible information that he's dead but I don't have any confirmation, Pakistani daily Dawn quoted Interior Minister Rehman Malik saying on Wednesday. Mr. Malik also said that Qari Hussein, a senior Taliban commander and one of Mehsuds possible successors, may have also been killed.

But details of exactly where he died still varied. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Taliban claim Mehsud was wounded in a drone strike Jan. 14 in Shaktoi, a village in South Waziristan, and died Sunday in the southern Punjab province city of Multan, on his way to Karachi for medical treatment. Pakistani security sources, meanwhile, claimed he died in the tribal areas, not in Multan. And the Associated Press quoted a tribal elder as saying he had attended Mehsuds funeral in late January in the Mamuzai area of Orakzai. (See a map of the region here.)

The New York Times reported last month that American intelligence was 90 percent sure that Mehsud was already dead.

While the Los Angeles Times reports that the Pakistani Taliban on Tuesday confirmed Mehsuds death, the Wall Street Journal reports that a Taliban spokesman on Tuesday denied that Mehsud had died, and Dawn reports that two Taliban officials also issued denials. The Journal also reports, however, that there are signs that the long-rumored event may have taken place.

The Christian Science Monitor reported earlier this month on Mehsuds possible successors.

While Mehsuds apparent death may mark a psychological victory for the US, it will likely do little to help the military campaign against the Taliban. The organization was brutally successful in launching attacks after the US killed the previous commander in August, as the Los Angeles Times notes.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Times
• Square
• Carbomb
• SUV
• IED
• Propane
• fireworks
• smoke
• Obama
• Pakistan
• ISI
• Taliban
• Bomb
• Squad

[HishM1]

May Allah reward him with djanna firdaus.

[IranContraScumDid911]

@HishM1 He died February 10 2010, he is with "Allah" already.

[tomterrific4]

sounds like the "predator" drone got him. The eye in the sky is watching you...Oh yeah "death to america"

[12345zud]

taliban tul kossmadaran da benamussan  da kerrem da kosse nane talaiba taliba haiwan mutlaq kafer astan

[gre8nation]

Talibans you guys are same like "khwarij" killers of innocent people .Time will prove you are same like who killed osman and ali . Innocent blood will wipe your name from the world . God never help cruel people.

[vote4geertwilders]

may alalh reward him with a cock up his arse thats after allah has finished sucking muhhameds cock in hell

[gman2152]

Well, we caught the Little Bitch. Now he will Die, or go to Jail for Life. And he is a Pretty Boy. Yeah, he will get Ass-Raped in Our Prisons. No Question. Ya see, there is something strange about a country that cages the most violent of criminals, or kills them. Probably a country the Taliban should quit fucking with. Basically, you want us to Nuke the Taliban, thats the only other alternative. At least thats what I gather, by the word success. So Fuck it, you guys can get Nuked. Fuck ya.

[DRAGONZOOOM]

if the US pulls out of the genva convention i bet would would you not have this issue so i ask Saint Barbra for a dirrect strike of lightning on all Infedel haters .oh yes  please Taliban have a Coke and a smile and seeing you hate women and love men so much send your woman to the USA to be free

[WARDE2000]

Rag heads driving around in a US made Hummer. What a shower of wasters.

[alen209]

its Che Guevara  wtf! xD

[akshooter47]

@IranContraScumDid911 Bro hes a alive new video is up supposedly! TACKBIR!