The Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP)’s leader Hakimullah Mehsud has invited the Pakistani government to peace talks, saying he is eager for “serious talks” aimed at bringing peace to the nation’s tribal areas.
Hakimullah, who has led the TTP since 2009 and been falsely reported killed on at least eight separate occasions, insists that the recent Peshawar bombings were not conducted by the TTP, but rather by some other faction that aimed to fuel opposition to them.
Hakimullah insisted that the government needs to end the US drone strikes against the nation’s tribal areas and promised to guarantee the security of negotiators who enter the tribal areas for a peace jirga.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has made peace talks with the Taliban a key part of his early policy since his summer election. Though some Taliban factions have expressed support for the idea, the talks seem to be very preliminary so far.
insists that […] bombings were not conducted by the TTP, but rather […] aimed to fuel opposition to them.
That's a public statement that might get one worried about that ninth life.
Tonight I heard 29 Americans have died in action since the government shut down. That is the highest rate of U.S. deaths in combat action in some time but as usual no information any where as to where and how all these soldiers died. I assume there is a Taliban offensive underway in Afghanistan.
Does Antiwar have any insight?
Googled icasualties.net They have a short blurb about an explosion in Kandahar that killed 17 U.S. soldiers.
Further search reveals 17 killed and injured with 4 confirmed dead by a female suicide bomber. 25 more Americans have been killed in separate incidents in Afghanistan? icasualties lists only 6 U.S. dead in Afghanistan for October? Were several Americans killed in Somalia or another country? If 29 Americans have died in Afghanistan in the last few weeks that is the most casualties there in at least a year.
Or could the U.S. be hiding combat deaths in Somalia?