http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/08/us_strikes_taliban_c_2.php
“US strikes Taliban compound in South Waziristan, 8 killed”
By BILL ROGGIO
August 27, 2009 8:05 AM
SNIPPET: “Unmanned US strike aircraft fired missiles at a Taliban compound in Pakistan’s Taliban-controlled tribal area of South Waziristan.
Three Hellfire missiles struck in the town of Kanigoram near Wana, a known stronghold of the Taliban forces under the command of Mullah Nazir. Eight Taliban fighters and possibly some Uzbek fighters were reported killed, but no high value Taliban or al Qaeda targets have been reported killed at this time.
Waliur Rehman Mehsud, the new leader of the Taliban in South Waziristan, was the target of the strike, a US intelligence source told The Long War Journal.
Kanigoram is a known Taliban stronghold. The US conducted an airstrike there on April 29, 2009. Ten Taliban fighters were killed in missile strikes on a Taliban safe house and a vehicle.
Fourth strike this month
Today’s attack in South Waziristan is only the fourth strike in August as well as the fourth since July 17. The last attack took place on Aug. 20 in North Waziristan. The target was Siraj Haqqani, the powerful military commander of the Haqqani Network. During the first 17 days of July, the US conducted seven airstrikes in Pakistan.
The US has shifted the focus of its covert air campaign in Pakistan’s tribal areas almost exclusively to targeting Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan. Of the 35 US strikes carried out in Pakistan this year, 25 have taken place in South Waziristan. The next US airstrike will match last year’s total of 36 airstrikes in Pakistan.
Baitullah was killed in the Aug. 5 strike that also killed his wife and several members of his bodyguard. He was replaced as the leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan by Hakeemullah Mehsud, while Waliur Rehman Mehsud took control of the Taliban in the Mehsud tribal areas in South Waziristan.
Background on US strikes against al Qaeda and Taliban networks in northwestern Pakistan”
Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/08/us_strikes_taliban_c_2.php
Wouldn't be much of a Taliban chief if he didn't would he?
Hey Hakeemullah, here’s some advice: don’t buy any green bananas.
Ya' don't hold a candle to the Messiah in Chief.
threatened to strike back at the US for killing Baitullah Mehsud in a Predator attack earlier last month. "We will take revenge and soon," Hakeemullah Mehsud, who was chosen to lead the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan last weekend, told AFP. "We will give our reply to this drone attack to America." The Taliban claimed Baitullah died on Aug. 23 of wounds suffered during the Aug. 5 airstrike that also killed his second wife and seven of his bodyguards. Hakeemullah and Baitullah were cousins; Baitullah helped Hakeemullah quickly rise through the ranks of the Taliban.I'm sure our armed forces will be giving Hakeemullah help reaching the next rung on his career ladder.
I thought al-Qaeda had a trademark on the expression “Dire Revenge(tm)”.