UPDATE:
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/06/senior_taliban_leade.php
“Senior Taliban leaders targeted in yesterday’s Predator strikes”
By BILL ROGGIO
June 24, 2009 9:32 AM
SNIPPET: “Yesterday’s follow-on Predator attack at a funeral for a Taliban commander targeted senior Pakistani and Afghan leaders of the group. The death toll in the attack has jumped to 83, and two Taliban commanders were rumored to have been killed, although one commander targeted confirmed he was alive and an aide to another said the leader was not killed.
Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud; Qari Hussain Mehsud, a senior commander in Baitullah’s network; and Mullah Sangeen Zadran, a field commander in the Haqqani Network in Afghanistan, were targeted in the Predator attack in Pakistan’s lawless tribal agency of South Waziristan.
The attack took place in the Ladha region as scores of Taliban leaders and fighters were attending the funeral of Khwaz Ali Mehsud, a mid-level commander in Baitullah’s network. The initial attack on the funeral procession was followed up with strikes on Taliban vehicles as they attempted to flee the attack site.
Khwaz was killed in a Predator airstrike in Makeen earlier that morning. The attack killed five other low-level Taliban fighters.
Khwaz was “beloved” by Baitullah, a senior US military intelligence official told The Long War Journal. The News described Khwaz as one of Baitullah’s “close and trusted commanders.” Senior Taliban leaders were expected to attend Khwaz’s funeral to pay their respects.”
UPDATE:
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/06/taliban_commanders_s.php
“Taliban commanders survive US airstrike at funeral”
By BILL ROGGIO
June 25, 2009 10:17 AM
SNIPPET: “The US came close to killing Baitullah Mehsud, one of his senior deputies, and an Afghan Taliban commander during Tuesday’s airstrike that targeted the leaders as they gathered for the funeral of an aide killed in a separate Predator strike earlier that day.
Baitullah, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban movement, narrowly escaped the attack, as he left the funeral just minutes before the airstrike, US intelligence officials involved in the hunt in Pakistan’s tribal areas told The Long War Journal.
“We think we almost had him,” one official said, referring to Baitullah. “It was close.”
Qari Hussain Mehsud and Mullah Sangeen Zadran also dodged the US air blitz, according to US intelligence officials and reports in the Pakistani press.
Qari Hussain is a senior Taliban commander and possible successor to Baitullah. He runs suicide training camps in South Waziristan and recruits young boys to serve as suicide bombers.
Sangeen is senior deputy to Siraj Haqqani and a field commander for the Haqqani Network in eastern Afghanistan. Sangeen has led pitched battles against US and Afghan forces in Paktika province in Afghanistan.
Baitullah, Qari Hussain, and Sangeen were in the town of Makeen to attend the funeral of Khwaz Ali Mehsud, a mid-level commander of the Taliban in South Waziristan. Khwaz Ali, who was close to Baitullah, had been killed in a Predator strike earlier that morning.”