Top Taliban commander killed
2010-03-06 20:21
Islamabad - A top Pakistani Taliban commander close to al-Qaeda is believed to have been killed in an army airstrike, officials said on Saturday, in the latest apparent blow to insurgents who have attacked Pakistan and threatened US forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Maulvi Faqir Mohammed was believed to be among a number of insurgents killed on Friday at a sprawling compound in the northwest Mohmand tribal region, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said.
He said authorities had not identified the bodies of Mohammed or his fellow commander Qari Ziaur Rehman, but all the militants hiding at the site were killed after the helicopter gunships were dispatched on "real-time" intelligence.
"If Faqir Mohammed and Qari Ziaur Rehman are alive, then I will be surprised," he told Pakistan's Express news channel after receiving a briefing from the paramilitary Frontier Corps in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
Airstrike
Mohammed was a deputy commander in the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan - Pakistan's Taliban Movement - leading the network's operations in the Bajur and Mohmand tribal regions. He also was close to al-Qaeda No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri, who along with Osama bin Laden is suspected of using Pakistan's tribal badlands as a hide-out.
Two intelligence officials also said that Mohammed was believed dead and that about two dozen insurgents had died in Friday's airstrike.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said they were confident of their information, but warned that the remote, dangerous nature of the region made it nearly impossible to offer a definitive confirmation at this stage.
A Pakistani Taliban spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment.
- AP
