The Pakistani Taliban confirmed on Tuesday, that its chief Hakimullah Mehsud had died of injuries sustained in a US drone strike, ending weeks of speculation over his fate.Taliban sources based in the Aurakzai tribal region told TV news channels that 28-year-old Mehsud was severely injured in a drone attack in Shaktoi area of North Waziristan Agency on January 14.
Pakistani security forces backed by helicopter gunships pounded militant hideouts in the restive North Waziristan region Friday, killing 18 pro-Taliban militants after rebels attacked a pramilitary post leaving a soldier dead.
Two missiles were fired at a house in the Khushali Torikhel area near Mir Ali town at around midnight, TV channels reported. Among the five persons who died were foreign militants, the reports said.
In the last year since the Indian embassy in Kabul was bombed on July 7, allegedly by the Sirajuddin Haqqani faction of the Taliban based in Pakistan's North Waziristan province, India has well and truly joined in United States president Barack Obama's 'AfPak strategy' that is aimed at jointly looking at Afghanistan and Pakistan as the expanded theatre of war against the Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
On Monday, Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson Tasnim Aslam during a media briefing declined to answer a question relating to the kidnapping saying that she had no information on it.
Stating that the Al Qaida was able to establish an unprecedented safe haven along the Pakistan-Afghan border in the past 18 months, the Central Intelligence Agency chief has warned that the situation there presented a clear danger to the two nations, as also to the United States. General Micheal Hayden termed the 2006 peace deal between Pakistan government and the pro-Taliban tribals in North Waziristan as absolutely disastrous.
The deal was agreed between the government and more than 280 tribal elders and terrorists in North Waziristan last month, The Daily Telegraph reported, quoting a government official in Peshawar.
Senior Al Qaeda commander Abu Laith al-Libi was killed along with other militant fighters in a United States missile strike in Pakistan, a website linked to radical Islamic groups has reported.
Over 150 pro-Taliban militants and 45 soldiers have been killed in three days of fierce fighting in Pakistan's restive North Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan, However, the army on Tuesday ruled out the possibility of declaring a ceasefire to put an end to the violence. Approximately 13 security personnel have also been reported missing in the last two days. Local reports also claimed that 50 civilians had died in the clashes but these were denied by the army.
Over 60 pro-Taliban militants and 20 soldiers were killed in fierce clashes between security forces and rebels in the troubled North Waziristan tribal region; where over 50 Pakistani troops were reported missing on Monday. Military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said army authorities had lost contact with two groups comprising over 50 security personnel. Local residents alleged that several civilians were killed and injured in the attacks
Pakistani security forces on Sunday attacked militant hide-outs in the country's restive tribal region near the Afghan border. In the ensuing clashes, 20 ultras and two soldiers were killed. The forces participating in the operation in the Mirali area of North Waziristan tribal agency were backed by helicopter gunships and artillery. Two soldiers were also killed and six more injured in the ongoing operation.
A top Member of Parliament in the UK has asked if the government knew about the US missile strike in Pakistan which killed an on-the-run militant from the UK.
Officials said unidentified men attacked a security check-post on Friday night near Miranshah, the headquarters of North Waziristan, injuring security personnel.
After militants launched attacks on army posts and tried to blow up an army convoy, the military pressed helicopter gun ships to bombard their hideouts in the area, for the first time in recent months.
The attack is being seen as a possible fallout of the recent Army crackdown on the pro-Taliban Lal Masjid in Islamabad.
Ten people, including six security personnel, were killed and five others injured on Wednesday in two separate attacks on army and police vehicles in Pakistan, which officials suspect could be a fallout of the crackdown on Lal Masjid clerics.
Reports said helicopters attacked a residential compound in Saidgi area near the Pakistan-Afghan border.
The attackers 'rammed their white car into a military convoy when it was heading to Mir Ali, a major town in North Waziristan (tribal area) at 10:30 am,' an army spokesman said.
At least five people, including a child, were killed and 29 others injured on Tuesday in a powerful car bomb suicide attack by the Taliban targeting a senior military officer in this restive northwestern Pakistani city.
Sixteen militants were killed in two United States drone strikes within last 24 hours in Pakistan's restive tribal region, ending a five-month hiatus.
On January 30, a suicide bombing at a mosque in the Peshawar Police Lines area claimed the lives of at least 101 people
In a blunt message, the United States has asked Pakistan to intensify efforts to counter terrorist sanctuaries inside its borders and take concrete steps against the dreaded Haqqani network responsible for major attacks on American installations in Afghanistan.
Umar Khalid, Maulana Fazlullah and Khan Said alias Sajna are under consideration for the top slot, the report said quoting sources.
At least eight persons, including three Haqqani network commanders, were killed on Thursday in a rare United States drone strike outside Pakistan's tribal belt, just a day after a top official said the US had agreed to halt such attacks during negotiations with militants.
Defence Secretary Ashton Carter declined to give a certification to the Congress that Pakistan is taking sufficient action against the dreaded Haqqani network.
Pakistan, in recent months, has been increasingly frustrated by the Taliban government's reluctance to eliminate the terrorist groups, including the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
The chief of Al Qaeda's global operations, wanted by the United State over a 2009 plot to attack the New York subway system, was killed in a raid in Pakistan's restive tribal region, the country's military said.
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.
US drone strikes in Pakistan "must stop", Pakistan's powerful army chief General Raheel Sharif said on Wednesday.
At least 22 security personnel were killed and 38 others injured when the Pakistani Taliban attacked a military convoy in the country's restive northwest on Sunday.
Boxer Amir Khan will donate a pair of 30,000 pounds ($47,007) shorts to the Peshawar school in Pakistan where 132 children were killed by Taliban gunmen earlier this week.
Pakistan army retaliated to the deadly Taliban attack at Peshawar school by killing 5 militants in massive airstrikes in the Khyber tribal region where the suicide bombers were reportedly trained.
The conditions are related to Pakistan's support to terrorists and terror outfits.
Mullah Fazlullah, the militant commander who ordered the assassination of teenage activist Malala Yusufzai, was today named by the Pakistani Taliban as its new chief to replace Hakimullah Mehsud, killed in a US drone strike last week.
At least 53 people have been killed and nearly 140 injured in Pakistan in separate attacks, including a deadly suicide bombing in restive Quetta city.
'What we need from the civilian and military authorities are clear strategies rather than an emotional decision to hang terrorists on death row.'
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