Islamic militants overrun Pakistani fort

NF Reporter · 01-17-2008, 01:20 AM

AP - In an embarrassing battlefield defeat for Pakistan's army, Islamic extremists attacked and seized a small fort near the Afghan border, leaving at least 22 soldiers dead or missing.

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waltky · 01-20-2008, 10:42 PM

Musharraf kickin' militants butt...

Pakistani Military Attacks Militants
Jan 20, 2008 - Pakistan Pounds Militant Positions in Extremist Stronghold Near Afghan Border

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The Pakistani military pounded an extremist stronghold Sunday near the Afghan border where a rebel leader blamed for the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is believed to be hiding, officials and witnesses said. The strikes came after authorities said Saturday they had arrested a 15-year-old boy in northwestern Pakistan alleged to have been involved in the Dec. 27 slaying of Bhutto, an opposition leader critical of rising Islamic extremism in the country.

The central government has never had much control over South Waziristan, a tribal area where several top militants are believed to live. They included Baitullah Mehsud, a Pakistani accused by the government and the CIA of masterminding the killing of Bhutto. Officials said the boy had confessed to taking part in a plot to kill Bhutto in a gun and suicide bomb attack in the garrison town of Rawalpindi. His role in the mission to kill Bhutto was as a backup in case the shooter or the suicide attacker failed, according to an intelligence official who has seen his interrogation records.

The boy said the slaying was organized by Mehsud, who has previously denied any involvement in the attack, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. Authorities say the boy received terrorist training in neighboring Afghanistan before taking part in the mission. He told interrogators he trained for 40 days in a camp run by Mehsud in the Kotai area of South Waziristan before going to Helmand province Afghanistan in 2007 for another 40 days of "practical training."

More ABC News: Pakistani Military Attacks Militants

waltky · 01-27-2008, 03:10 AM

Omar fires Mehsud...

Mullah Omar sacks Mehsud
27 Jan 2008, Taliban chief Mullah Omar has removed the wanted militant leader Baitullah Mehsud as the commander of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for fighting the Pakistani army, a news report has said.

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Asia Times Online quoted Mullah Omar as telling other Taliban commanders to turn their focus on NATO forces stationed in Afghanistan.

Mehsud, appointed by Omar as the chief of the Pakistani Taliban, was expected to pro-vide support to the Taliban in Afghanistan, but instead directed all his fighters against Pakistani security forces even as Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf has ordered intensified military operations against the pro-Taliban militants in South Waziristan.

Now, Omar has sacked Mehsud for fighting against the Pakistan army instead of with NATO forces, said the report of the Hong Kong-based online.

Source

waltky · 03-19-2008, 09:50 PM

Mehsud a global nemesis...

Rising Terror Chief Worries U.S. Officials
March 17, 2008 - Baitullah Mesud, Accused Bhutto Assassination Mastermind, Emerges As Global Nemesis

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Pictures obtained by CBS News from Pakistani sources are among the first public images ever to surface of a man U.S. intelligence officials call "one of the most dangerous people on the planet," CBS News justice and homeland security correspondent Bob Orr reports. He is Pakistani warlord Baitullah Mehsud, the accused mastermind of the Benazir Bhutto assassination. An emerging leader, sources say, who threatens to eclipse Osama bin Laden as the world's top terrorist.

Terrorism analyst Christine Fair says Baitullah Mehsud is running a training camp for suicide bombers in Pakistan's off-limits tribal region -- a magnet for radical Islamic recruits from Europe and potentially the United States. "He may not be out there cultivating people to send them abroad, but people abroad may seek him out for the operations that they conduct back home or elsewhere," Fair says.

Officials suspect that's precisely what happened in the recent foiled suicide bombing plot targeting transit systems in Spain and four other European countries. Operatives rounded up in Barcelona have been linked to terror training camps in the same Pakistan region where Mehsud is the supreme commander and where al Qaeda has found safe sanctuary. Robert Grenier was a top official at the CIA. "Given the fact that he is able to control territory that is extremely important to al Qaeda, that makes him a very important player," Grenier says.

Unlike al Qaeda leaders bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, who use very public propaganda to assert their power and build fear, Mehsud is a secretive tribal fighter who rarely shows his face outside his inner circle. But Mehsud's message is just as threatening. With his identity protected, Mehsud told the Arab network al Jazeera, "We want to eradicate Britain and America ...We pray that Allah will enable us to destroy the White House, New York, and London."

"He's saying the same thing that bin Laden said then years ago," Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said. "And it doesn't mean that the attack's coming tomorrow, but yeah, it's certainly, he's the kind of person and his group is the kind of group that we need to mindful about." While Mehsud's emergence from the shadows is worrisome, U.S. officials hope there's an upside. As one intelligence analyst put it, if he makes himself more visible, he'll be easier to eliminate.

Rising Terror Chief Worries U.S. Officials, Baitullah Mesud, Accused Bhutto Assassination Mastermind, Emerges As Global Nemesis - CBS News

waltky · 10-02-2008, 12:20 AM

Sounds like we have an intelligence plant within his organization...

Pakistani Taliban Leader Dead Or Dying?
Oct. 1, 2008 - Baitullah Mehsud Very Ill, Officials Say Group Scrambling For New Leaders, Taliban Says He's Getting Better

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The leader of Pakistan's increasingly bold Taliban movement is very ill, but intelligence officials in the United States and Pakistan have cast doubt on reports that Baitullah Mehsud may have died. Mehsud is only in his mid to late thirties, but is believed to suffer from multiple health issues, including diabetes and kidney problems. One of Mehsud's subcommanders told CBS News' Sami Yousafzai he'd met with the powerful militant leader on Tuesday night and that his blood sugar level was improving, and with it, his general health. Just hours after unconfirmed reports of his death surfaced late on Tuesday, a senior Pakistani security official told CBS News' Farhan Bokhari the Taliban branch inside his country was "scrambling to appoint two new deputies in a possible preparation for a succession."

"Unless someone produces a body, I can't confirm Baitullah Mehsud's death. But we are witnessing intelligence reports along the lines of the Taliban scrambling to appoint two new deputies," said a senior Pakistani security official. "Is this the Taliban preparation for a succession? That is the question we are asking but there are no answers as yet." Mehsud's death was reported overnight by the privately owned GEO TV channel and pan-Arab satellite news channel Al Jazeera, citing unnamed security sources in Pakistan. Wednesday, a senior Arab diplomat in Pakistan with access to intelligence information told Bokhari "we are no now hearing reports that he is ill but still alive." The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the earlier reports of Mehsud's death "may well have been premature."

A U.S. official told CBS News correspondent Bob Orr that Mehsud is known to have significant health problems, including diabetes, but confirmation of his death would come only when his body could be produced. While the Taliban denies the reports of Mehsud's death, they do not argue that the leader's health is in a desperate state. Yousafzai reports Mehsud has been seriously ill for weeks, unable to carry out most of his regular duties as commander of the Islamic extremist movement. Sources inside the group say a doctor who recently visited Mehsud advised him not to meet with other people, as his mental health was also deteriorating.

More Pakistani Taliban Leader Dead Or Dying?, Baitullah Mehsud Very Ill, Officials Say Group Scrambling For New Leaders, Taliban Says He's Getting Better - CBS News