Word: pakistani
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...Pakistan are concerned, there is now "credible evidence" that Baitullah Mehsud, the murderous head of the Pakistani Taliban, was killed in a CIA-operated drone strike last Wednesday, Aug. 5. Conclusive proof, said Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik, could come only from a DNA test on what remains of Mehsud (the drone strike reportedly severed his body in half). However, the remote village in South Waziristan where the attack took place is dominated by the Taliban and other militants, difficult to access...
...they acknowledge that the group is more vulnerable than it has been in years. "Mehsud brought different tribal groups together under his banner of extremism," says a U.S. counterterrorism official. "The loss of his leadership skills and experience would be significant. It wouldn't mean the end of the Pakistani Taliban, but it would be a true setback for them, especially in the near term." (Read a story about the killing of Baitullah Mehsud...
Baitullah himself rose to the top of the Pakistani Taliban after a long internecine battle with other commanders, like Abdullah Mehsud, a onetime detainee at Guanténamo Bay. Once he had reached the summit, Baitullah was able to keep fractious tribal commanders in line by sheer force of will. It helped that, after a 2005 truce with Pakistani authorities, he had the time and freedom to consolidate his leadership. Many counterterrorism analysts believe he also had the covert help of Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI. It helped, too, that the CIA's drone campaign was aimed primarily...
Baitullah's successor won't have any of those advantages. The next leader of the TTP will face threats from three quarters: challengers from within the group, a land assault by the Pakistani military and the CIA's deadly drones. Baitullah's death, says the counterterrorism official, proves the the TTP's "most senior leaders can be taken off the battlefield with great precision ... that places they thought were secure are anything...
Much will depend now on what the Pakistani military does next. Since June, when the government of President Asif Ali Zardari announced the start of a major offensive against Mehsud, the military has confined itself to aerial attacks. Many officers are thought to be opposed to a ground campaign in difficult terrain against a united TTP. Mehsud's death gives the military the opportunity to go in for the kill. But another U.S. official worries that the Pakistanis will hold off and seek another truce. "There will be some [in the military] who say, 'Enemy No. 1 is dead...