Mar 30, 2010

Abdulhadi Hairan, a research analyst at (CAPS)

16 March 2010

Pakistani officials and many other sources quoted by the international media believe that Hakimullah Mehsud, the 30 year old aggressive leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), was killed as the result of a successful drone attack on 14th January 2010 in Shatkoi village between North and South Waziristan. The attack took place days after the militant commander appeared in an Al-Jazeera video with Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, the Jordanian suicide bomber who killed the 7 most experienced and senior CIA counter-insurgency experts in the Camp Chapman attack in southeastern Khost province of Afghanistan, on 31stDecember 2009. Until now the Pakistani Taliban have been denying his death, they had also reacted in the same manner when top commander and founder of the TTP, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in an airstrike in August of 2009. Neither Pakistani officials, nor Taliban spokesman provided any physical evidence for supporting their claims regarding Hakimullah’s death, yet some media outlets quoted reliable sources that suggested that a new militant commander, Malik Noor Jamal, or better known as Mullah Toofanwas selected as the new leader of the insurgency. (Full Article, file type (pdf) 110 KB)