Pakistani army investigating reports of Taliban leader’s death

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan
— The Pakistani army Sunday began investigating reports that Pakistani
Taliban leader Hakimullah Mahsud may have been killed in a drone strike
this month. If confirmed, the militant’s death could deal insurgents a
severe setback in their battle against the government.

Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas confirmed that Mahsud, 28, was wounded in a Jan. 17 U.S. airstrike that targeted two cars in North Waziristan, a largely Taliban-controlled tribal region along the Afghan border.

Abbas said intelligence agents are investigating a
report on state television that Mahsud was killed in the strike and
buried four days ago in the tribal district of Orakzai. The channel
attributed its report to “official sources.”

Abbas said he did not know the extent of Mahsud’s
injuries. The Associated Press reported he had suffered wounds to his
abdomen and legs.

If confirmed, Mahsud’s death would force the Taliban
to find a new leader just five months after a U.S. drone strike killed
Taliban chief Baitullah Mahsud, believed to be the mastermind behind
the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007.

However, it probably would not deal a fatal blow to
the Taliban. After Baitullah Mahsud’s death, his deputy, Hakimullah
Mahsud, took the reins of the militant group and unleashed a campaign
of suicide bombings and commando-style raids on cities late last year.

That campaign was largely a response to the government’s decision to launch an all-out offensive in insurgent-held South Waziristan to root out Taliban and al-Qaida militants from that district. Troops have since regained almost all of South Waziristan, but most of the Taliban’s leaders and rank-and-file fighters were able to flee to neighboring tribal districts.

The drone strike targeting Hakimullah Mahsud on Jan. 17 was part of a wave of similar attacks carried out by the U.S. after the Dec. 30 suicide bombing of a secret base in Afghanistan that killed seven CIA workers. Mahsud was also the apparent target of a drone strike on the border of North and South Waziristan on Jan. 14.

A video released after the base attack showed Mahsud
sitting next to the Jordanian who carried out the bombing. The bomber,
Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal Balawi, said the attack he was planning would
avenge Baitullah Mahsud.

Since the attack, at least a dozen drone strikes in the tribal areas have killed at least 100 people.

Hellfire missile-armed drones have become President Obama‘s primary method to eliminate al-Qaida leaders and Taliban militants who use the tribal areas as a haven in between treks into Afghanistan
to attack U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops. In 2009,
American forces carried out 51 drone strikes in northwest Pakistan, compared with 27 in 2008.

Islamabad has tacitly allowed the U.S. drone campaign against militants to continue, while publicly condemning the attacks.

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