Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, an Al Qaeda operative of Libyan origin, died in a missile strike on Thursday, said the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan's Shura (the supreme council) has decided that Hakimullah Mehsud will not directly meet the media as it would help spy agencies locate him.
Two soldiers were killed and as many injured when their vehicle was targeted with a remote-controlled bomb by suspected Taliban militants in Pakistan's restive northwestern tribal region on Sunday. The soldiers were attacked in a mountainous area when they were heading to a check post after fetching drinking water. Initial reports had said the vehicle had hit a landmine. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
One of the two terrorists arrested during audacious terror strikes on two mosques of the minority Ahmedi sect in Lahore has told investigators that the attackers had received training in the lawless Waziristan tribal belt and were working at the behest of the Pakistani Taliban's Punjabi wing.
Stepping up a campaign against the group, 10 to 12 drones carried out a wave of pre-dawn attacks on Dargah Mandi and Danday Darpa Khel near Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan Agency, officials and witnesses were quoted as saying by TV news channels.
Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud received splinter injuries to his head and back in an American missile strike in Pakistan's lawless Waziristan tribal region that killed at least 15 militants, according to intelligence officials.Mehsud, who became the Tehrik-e-Taliban chief after the killing of his predecessor Baitullah Mehsud in a drone attack in August last year, was injured in Thursday's United States' missile strike at Basalkot in Shaktoi area.
'Anybody can claim anything,' Pakistan army spokesperson Major General Athar Abbas said. 'I do not think the Pakistani Taliban has the capacity to carry out attacks overseas because the army has destroyed their facilities.'
Refusing to release the abducted journalist Mohammad Rashid, who is associated with the Associated Press, the North Waziristan Taliban has said that Rashid is being interrogated to ascertain his motives behind coming to Miramshah.
A hitherto unheard of militant group called the Asian Tigers on Monday issued a video of two top former ISI officials and a journalist whom it claimed to have kidnapped in Pakistan's volatile tribal belt.
Although the United States have denied confirmation, but it's apparent that Tehrik-e-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud has been killed in a recent US drone attack in South Waziristan, Pakistan. Mehsud's death signifies tremendous implications, and was possibly a result of intelligence penetration. Explains security expert B Raman
However, it is not clear whether the Moscow bombings have been carried out by anti-Russian Chechen rebels or by Chechen separatists linked to the Al Qaeda who receive their training in the borderlands of Afghanistan-Pakistan. Indian intelligence officials believe these groups are increasingly linked, pointing out that the suicide attacks could also be in retaliation against the Russian decision to allow US and NATO forces to send non-lethal equipment through Russia to Afghani
Pakistani troops on Sunday killed 17 militants and recovered 22 bodies of suspected Taliban fighters in the country's restive northwest and tribal areas, while an anti-Taliban mayor survived a fifth assassination bid in a town near Peshawar.
Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, the world's most wanted terrorists, are hiding "inside Pakistan", CIA chief Leon Panetta has said and claimed that aggressive US operations against Al Qaeda have disrupted its ability to plan sophisticated attacks.
Suicide bombers on Friday struck Pakistan's powerful Inter Services Intelligence, hitting its operational headquarters in the north-western city of Peshawar, and a nearby police station in Bannu, killing 20 people, including seven personnel of the spy agency. The strike on the spy agency and the police station left 85 people injured and came as 30,000 troops intensified their operation against the Taliban and foreign militants in lawless Waziristan.
With models strutting down the catwalk in couture fashion that was elegant and racy, the Pakistan Fashion Week showed a completely new and different image of the nation where burkas and hijabs are not uncommon.
The Pakistani military on Tuesday claimed to have wrested the Taliban stronghold of Sararogha in South Waziristan, where 21 militants and a soldier were killed in fierce clashes over the past 24 hours.
United States Commander of Joint Operations Special Command General Stanley McChrystal has facilitated the removal of scores of security check-posts from the Afghanistan side of the Pak-Afghan border as part of a conspiracy against the Pakistani military, fear Pakistani security experts."This is an intriguing move aimed at different ends. But the primary motive of it is to encourage large-scale reinforcements and infiltration," said a security expert.
Backed by tanks and fighter jets, Pakistan Army launched the much-awaited major ground offensive on Friday to flush out Taliban from their stronghold of Waziristan tribal region and immediately ran into heavyresistance. Troops were locked in fierce clashes with Taliban, who were reported using heavy weapons, to hold back the army advance, officials said.
Even as the Pakistan Army is all prepared and waits for a nod from the government to launch an all out offensive in South Waziristan, the Taliban's stronghold, many inside the Canadian government who deal with Pakistan and Afghanistan issues are suspicious of Islamabad's efforts.
Ali Ibrahim, a lawyer by profession, said militants should be dealt with full force as people have seen the result of half-hearted efforts in the past. "We should definitely be moving into Waziristan right now. Once you decide to take action, that should be wholehearted and made with a full effort," Ibrahim said.
Intercepts of militant communications have indicated that 28-year-old Mehsud had died after being wounded in a drone attack in Shaktoi area of Waziristan tribal region, Malik told the media after appearing in a court in Peshawar.
Rejecting the news that its chief Hakimullah Mehsud died in Punjab en route to Karachi for treatment, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) says that Hakimullah never left the tribal belt either for shelter or for medication.
New Tehrik-e-Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud surfaced on Monday and vowed to strike United States and Pakistani interests -- to avenge the killing of his slain leader Baitullah Mehsud and American drone attacks on the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. His appearance in front of a select group of reporters in the South Waziristan tribal area ended speculation over his reported death in a contest for leadership of the Pakistan Taliban, sparked by Baitullah's killing.
Pakistan's new Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud's brother was among 15 militants killed in two United States drone attacks in the country's lawless tribal belt. Hakimullah's brother Kalimullah was among six militants who were killed in the first drone attack in the Sararogha area of South Waziristan Agency on Tuesday afternoon. Nine militants were killed in the second drone attack, which was carried out in the evening in the Dandey Darpakhel area of North Waziristan Agency.
United States carried out the heaviest bombing so far of Pakistan's lawless tribal belt as a swarm of drones fired a volley of 19 hellfire missiles at the den of the fighters of Haqqani network, killing 31 militants, including two Taliban commanders and several foreign fighters.
Three militant factions, including splinter groups of the Taliban, have separately claimed responsibility for the suicide attack that took place after the popular flag-lowering ceremony at Wagah in Pakistan.
According to US intelligence sources, Kaashmiri was killed in a missile attack carried out by unmanned aircraft in South Waziristan on September 7.
A Filipino militant and a bomb- making expert, most-wanted by the United States, was killed in an American drone strike in Pakistan's restive South Waziristan region on January 14.
Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud on Saturday issued a new audio recording saying he was alive and well, dismissing reports that he was killed in a United States' drone attack in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. The recording was provided by the Taliban to the media in northwest Pakistan a day after another audio message -- in which Mehsud said he was alive but did not mention Thursday's drone strike in Waziristan tribal region -- triggered reports of his death.
At least 14 Taliban militants were killed in twin US drone attacks in Pakistan's restive northwest on Wednesday while five soldiers and as many militants died in violence, including in a suicide bombing at an army barrack in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The United States is now focusing on investigations into Times Square bomb suspect Faisal Shahzad's terror links in Pakistan, following his revelation that he attended a terrorist training camp in Waziristan.
Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad, the suspected Times Square bomber, attended a terrorist training camp at Waziristan in Pakistan, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has said. In a 10-page compliant file on Tuesday before the Court of Judge Nathaniel Fox, Southern District of New York, the FBI alleged that Shahzad traveled from Connecticut to New York on a sports-utility vehicle that was laden with a bomb.
Pakistan's most wanted terrorist Baitullah Mehsud's death may actually embolden the Pakistanis as it marks a weakening of those Taliban factions that oppose Islamabad, a leading United States private intelligence agency has said. "With more confidence in its influence over the remaining Taliban elements, Pakistan could be even less willing to sell out its Taliban assets in Afghanistan," the Stratfor said.
Even as the army battles Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan's militants headed by Hakimullah Mehsud, the government has decided to adopt another approach to end the spate of terror strikes on its soil. As part of this strategy, Interior Minister Rehman Malik has urged religious scholars to issue fatwas against the Taliban militants, by terming them as kafirs (non-believers).
US officials said the message did not amount to an ultimatum but rather it was intended to "prod a reluctant Pakistani military" to go after Taliban insurgents in Pakistan who are directing attacks in Afghanistan.
A beefed-up campaign of American drone strikes over the last three months has battered Al Qaeda and Taliban militants in the tribal area of North Waziristan, says a report in the New York Times.
Defence Secretary Mattis said he cannot certify that Islamabad has taken 'sufficient actions' against the dreaded Haqqani terror network.
The Obama administration is stepping up pressure on Pakistan to expand and reorient its fight against Taliban and Al Qaeda and wants its army to pursue the militants into north Waziristan.
While the Pakistani army and US troops continue to drive the Taliban out of their hideouts in South Waziristan, there is perhaps a dormant, but more dangerous, threat looming overhead.
The Pakistani military on Friday claimed its forces have entered the important Taliban stronghold of Makeen in South Waziristan even as gunmen injured an army brigadier and his driver in an audacious attack in the federal capital.
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