Thursday, August 13, 2009

Pakistan Helicopter Gunships Kill 11 Taliban

WANA, Pakistan- Pakistani gunship helicopters attacked Taliban bases on Thursday, killing 11 militants and keeping up pressure after the reported death of the Pakistani Taliban leader in a U.S. missile strike last week.

The U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, said on Wednesday said there were signs of disarray within the group following the apparent death of Baitullah Mehsud.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan's efforts to suppress Islamist militants on its side of the border are vital for a U.S.-led bid to stabilise neighbouring Afghanistan, where Taliban have threatened to disrupt the August 20 presidential election.

Pakistani and U.S. officials are almost certain that Mehsud was killed along with his second wife and some bodyguards in a strike on his father-in-law's house in South Waziristan near the Afghan border on August 5.

But Mehsud's aides insist he is alive.

Pakistani helicopters attacked several bases run by Hakeemullah Mehsud, one of Mehsud's main commanders who is seen as a possible successor, in the Kurram and Orakzai ethnic Pashtun tribal regions northeast of Mehsud's South Waziristan powerbase.

"We have reports that eight militants have been killed," Fazal Rahim, a government official in Orakzai, told Reuters.

An intelligence official in the nearby Kurram region said three militants were killed in air strikes there.

Hours later, a pro-government Pashtun tribal elder and three other people were killed in a bomb attack in South Waziristan.

"He was travelling in his car when a suicide bomber riding a motorbike blew himself up," said an intelligence official in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan.

FACTIONS CLASH

The elder, Khadeen Wazir, one of his colleagues and two passers-by were killed, he added. Another security official said Wazir and four other people were killed in the blast set off by remote control.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack although Mehsud and his men have a long record of assassinating their pro-government rivals.

Clashes have broken out since Mehsud's reported killing between his men and members of a rival militant faction.

At least seven militants opposed to Mehsud were killed and four were abducted by Mehsud's men in an attack near South Waziristan on Wednesday.

Members of the faction opposed to Mehsud, which is led by a commander known as Turkestan Bitani, later attacked a village inhabited by Mehsud loyalists and abducted 15 men, intelligence officials and residents said.

Mehsud is leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or Taliban Movement of Pakistan, an alliance of about 13 militant groups.

He has been blamed for a wave of bomb and suicide attacks across Pakistan, including the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007.

His killing, if confirmed, would be a major blow for the Taliban in Pakistan.

Mehsud focussed his efforts on battling Pakistani security forces and analysts say he could be replaced by a commander more intent on driving Western forces out of Afghanistan.

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