Word: tribals
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...Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, told reporters in Islamabad on Friday Aug. 7 that, "According to my intelligence information, the news is correct. We are trying to get on-the-ground verification to be 100% sure. But according to my information, he has been taken out." Local Pakistani media, citing "tribal sources" in South Waziristan, are reporting that Mehsud's funeral prayers had been held and that the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan's shura, or council, was meeting today to choose Mehsud's successor. (See pictures of the battle against the Taliban...
...that the fate now awaiting Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) after the death of its founder, Baitullah Mehsud? U.S. officials say it would be a mistake to count the TTP out, but 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...
...unlikely the council will meet under one roof, for fear of being obliterated, like Mehsud, by a missile from a CIA-operated drone. This means the discussions will have to take place through proxies and go-betweens, substantially delaying the process. Even in the best of times, succession in tribal leadership is rarely smooth. There are invariably multiple contenders, and it is common for outside moderators to be brought in to judge rival claims. (Read a brief biography of Baitullah Mehsud...
...Abdullah has promised to establish direct elections for governors and district governors rather than continue the current policy of presidential appointment. Both systems can be abused, but analysts in Kabul argue that, in Afghanistan's young democracy, popularly elected governors would more than likely come from dominant ethnic and tribal groups, further alienating and abusing minorities...
...Qaeda is no longer even based in Afghanistan, its leaders now thought to be operating underground in Pakistan's tribal areas. Preventing it from reclaiming an Afghan sanctuary may not require keeping 70,000 or more U.S. troops in the country for years to come - particularly since that deployment in itself is a key driver of the Taliban's insurgency...