Posted on 08/06/2009 2:04:26 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – There is a strong likelihood that Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was killed along with his wife and bodyguards in a missile attack two days ago, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik told Reuters.
"We suspect he was killed in the missile strike," Malik said on Friday. "We have some information, but we don't have material evidence to confirm it."
The United States has placed a $5 million reward on the head of Mehsud, an ally of al Qaeda widely regarded in Pakistan as Public Enemy No. 1.
A U.S. defense official, speaking anonymously in Washington, said he had seen no indications that Mehsud had been killed in the strike.
The attack in a tribal region of northwest Pakistan was believed to have been carried out by a pilotless U.S. drone aircraft at around 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday.
Neither the Pakistan nor U.S. governments confirm such attacks because of sensitivities over violation of Pakistan's territorial sovereignty.
Intelligence officials and relatives had confirmed earlier that Mehsud's second wife had been killed in the missile strike that targeted her father's home in an outlying settlement close to Makeen village in the South Waziristan tribal region.
A relative of Mehsud's dead wife had initially said the Taliban leader wasn't present when the missiles struck, but rumors that he had either been wounded or killed refused to die down.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Look for a big funeral procession shortly
Thank you President Bush.
Allah fubar!
We have GOT to stop bombing wedding parties like this.
Hussein Obama sends his condolences.
I notice that Obama and the rest of the Democrat Party don’t mention hunting down Bin Laden anymore.
“NEXT!”
Great shot!!!
LOL, just in time to receive some big bucks from America.
IIRC, this guy’s been reported killed like half a dozen times.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2309121/posts
“The United States has placed a $5 million reward on the head of Mehsud”.....
....and a missle in his pocket.....
Hang down yer head and cry
hang down yer head By-too-lah
Poor boy yer bound to die
Intelligence agents had also picked up signs that leaders of various Taliban factions planned to gather for a shura, or council meeting, somewhere in Waziristan later on Friday.
Gather em up for the Shura
gather em up to fry
gather em up for the Shura
they too are goin to die
There is a strong likelihood that Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was killed along with his wife and bodyguards in a missile attack two days agoShould get CSI: South Wazirastan on the case.
Thanks for your other thread as well. I’m beginning to think we may have gotten the guy. Now wouldn’t that be nice?
Wasn’t he the one paying for children to be kidnapped to be trained as suicide bombers?
Rest in hell.
To all the teams and UAV drivers -> HOME RUN
this is a game changer, #3 on our Most Wanted list. UBL and Z...comin' for ya..
Semper fi, carry on.
Sweeeeeeet.
Source please.
Hey, it was the Pakistanis.
You can trust them. They wouldn’t lie to us considering the boatloads of money we’ve given them and going to give soon.
But hey thats just me.......:-)
A Pakistani non-media source. Reuters has it right.
Until it is confirmed by a US governemt source....I declare the 48 hour rule.
If this turns out to be verified, GREAT!
OTOH, the only reason the Paki’s were after him was due to his fighting the Paki gov. That was his mistake.
The ISI loved this guy for crying out loud.
Excellent...!
Check this out. But Paki officials insist he’s dead, LOL!
Send us money, see what a good job we’re doing!
‘Baitullah Mehsud is alive’ - US intelligence official
By Bill RoggioAugust 6, 2009 6:04 PM
Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud was not killed in yesterday’s airstrike in South Waziristan, US intelligence officials told The Long War Journal.
“Baitullah is alive,” one official old The Long War Journal. “We’re aware of the reports that he might have been killed and we are looking into it, but we don’t believe he was killed.”
The late night airstrike on a compound operated by Ikramuddin Mehsud, Baitullah’s father-in-law, in the village of Zanghra in the mountains near Baitullah’s home town of Makeen, killed Baitullah’s second wife and two other Taliban fighters. One of Baitullah’s two brothers was also reported to have been killed.
Witnesses on the scene immediately said that Baitullah was not among those killed. He reportedly visited his wife but left an hour prior to the attack.
I think he is truly dead...I owe someone an apology.
My apologies.
Then you have one of our own "highly placed" intel sources yesterday telling Roggio he was absolutely alive at the same time other intel sources of ours were saying DNA was on the way.
Geez..... This is a war of spooks, guesswork, and gossip. There are so many sources and gatherers, doling out intel one word at a time, carving out fact territories, holding court for the media to kowtow to.
The "scoop" is the holy grail, once it's out, the rest of the media and blogs cut and paste the same story over and over.
I've learned, from getting burned, to stay with original sources and post to FR and a few select blogs and let the world media play catch up.
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