US Drone Strike Kills Pakistani Taliban Chief’s Wife
Four Killed, Several Children Wounded in Attack
A US drone strike in South Waziristan’s remote Zanghra village killed at least four people today, including one of the wives of Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud. The attack, on his father-in-law Ikram-ud din Mehsud’s home, also wounded five others, including four children.
Neither the TTP chief Baitullah, or his father in law, were in the home at the time. Though the exact details of the strike are not available, as the Mehsud tribe controlled village is difficult to reach, it does not appear that any of those killed in the strike were high ranking militants.
Such attacks are par for the course, for while the Obama Administration has amassed a significant body count with its escalated drone strikes in Waziristan, few militant leaders of any note have been killed, and the scores of civilians killed as collateral damage in the strikes are creating both a strong anti-US sentiment in the region and growing resentment at the Pakistani government for failing to stop the attacks.
Baitullah Mehsud has claimed credit for a growing number of terrorist attacks across Pakistan, which he says are retaliation for the US strikes. He has also threatened to launch an attack in Washington, and his determination for revenge against the US will no doubt grow with the killing of his wife.
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couscous
August 6th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Baitullah Mehsud is an American creation, just like Zarqawi was A tribal leader who earlier defected from Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud and revealed the militants group's ties with the US and Israel has been shot dead.
The assassination of Qari Zainuddin comes days after he revealed that their comrade was pursuing a US-Israeli agenda across the violence-wracked country.
Zainuddin, a 26-year-old rising tribesman who had called Mehsud "an American agent" was killed by a gunman in northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan on Tuesday.
Zainuddin, who broke away from Mehsud, was also increasingly critical of Mehsud's use of suicide bombings targeting civilians. &
Insurgents have stepped up their attacks on civilian and religious centers in major cities across Pakistan, which has fueled anti-Taliban sentiments among the Pakistani people.
The last bit was the purpose of the Zarqawi campaign: to make the civilians stop supporting the guerrillas. It didn’t make the Iraqis want to be colonized, but it did effectively neuter the antiwar movement.
couscous
August 6th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Baitullah Mehsud is an American creation, just like Zarqawi was A tribal leader who earlier defected from Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud and revealed the militants group's ties with the US and Israel has been shot dead.
The assassination of Qari Zainuddin comes days after he revealed that their comrade was pursuing a US-Israeli agenda across the violence-wracked country.
Zainuddin, a 26-year-old rising tribesman who had called Mehsud "an American agent" was killed by a gunman in northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan on Tuesday.
Zainuddin, who broke away from Mehsud, was also increasingly critical of Mehsud's use of suicide bombings targeting civilians. &
Insurgents have stepped up their attacks on civilian and religious centers in major cities across Pakistan, which has fueled anti-Taliban sentiments among the Pakistani people.
The last bit was the purpose of the Zarqawi campaign: to make the civilians stop supporting the guerrillas. It didn’t make the Iraqis want to be colonized, but it did effectively neuter the antiwar movement.
couscous
August 6th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Baitullah Mehsud is an American creation, just like Zarqawi was: A tribal leader who earlier defected from Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud and revealed the militants group's ties with the US and Israel has been shot dead.
The assassination of Qari Zainuddin comes days after he revealed that their comrade was pursuing a US-Israeli agenda across the violence-wracked country.
Zainuddin, a 26-year-old rising tribesman who had called Mehsud "an American agent" was killed by a gunman in northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan on Tuesday.
Zainuddin, who broke away from Mehsud, was also increasingly critical of Mehsud's use of suicide bombings targeting civilians. &
Insurgents have stepped up their attacks on civilian and religious centers in major cities across Pakistan, which has fueled anti-Taliban sentiments among the Pakistani people.
The last bit was the purpose of the Zarqawi campaign: to make the civilians stop supporting the guerrillas. It didn’t make the Iraqis want to be colonized, but it did effectively neuter the antiwar movement.