The wife of the Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud has been killed in a US missile strike, Pakistani intelligence officials said today.

Two militants were also killed by missiles that struck the house of Mehsud's father-in-law, Akramud Din, in Makeen, a village on the Afghan border, shortly before 1am local time, Reuters reported. Din's daughter was one of two wives of Mehsud. She married him in November last year.

Mehsud's associates would not confirm the report, although they did say a woman was killed in the missile strike in South Waziristan, part of the lawless tribal region along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan and where Taliban and al-Qaida leaders are believed to be hiding. One of them said Mehsud was not in the house at the time.

A relative told Reuters: "I confirm that the woman who was killed in the strike was the wife of Baitullah Mehsud." He said that four children were also injured.

In June, the Pakistani government ordered a manhunt for Mehsud. Since then, the US, which has placed a $5m (£2.95m) reward on the head of Mehsud, has increased its drone attacks, which have been blamed by many in Pakistan for killing innocent civilians. The US Embassy had no comment on the latest incident. Washington generally does not acknowledge being responsible for such strikes.The Pakistani government publicly condemns such attacks as counterproductive but is suspected of offering tacit approval for them.

Mehsud, a former bodybuilder and smuggler, is the most prominent of Pakistan's Taliban leaders. His Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group has allies across the tribal belt and has participated in recent battles against the Pakistani army in the Swat valley.

Mehsud has become Pakistan's most wanted man for his role in dozens of suicide bombings in cities over the last two years. The government says these have killed more than 1,200 people. He denied involvement in the most notorious attack, the assassination of the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007. He is believed to command a force of fighters of more than 10,000, with some estimates putting the figure at over 20,000.

Political analyst and retired Pakistani army Lt Gen Talat Masood said the US raid provided evidence it was "closing in" on the elusive Mehsud. "I think they seem to have good intelligence; there is no doubt about it," he said.

Since June, the Pakistani army has sealed roads around Mehsud's mountain redoubt and villagers have fled the area but the major offensive announced weeks ago, has not materialised. One reason for the delay is that the Pakistani military remains engaged in clearing up militants still active in and around the Swat Valley in northern Pakistan, despite a three-month offensive there against the Taliban.

The military said today that it had killed eight militants and arrested another 14 in operations in Swat and nearby areas during the previous 24 hours.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/0...sud-wife-killed

For some reason I have a thought at the back of my head that this shouldnt have occured. In whole honesty I seirously doubt that Baitullah's wife engaged in any activities against the state. If that is so then this action should be condemed

She was probably living a life of hell anyways.

I would have preferred this action executed by Pakistan. Nonetheless, Good job USA.

Confirmed that Baitullah's brother was also killed. Unconfirmed reports that Baitullah was there and killed also.

Baitullah’s wife, two militants killed in US drone attack
Dawn News

WANA: The wife of Baitullah Mehsud and two militants were killed in a US missile strike in Laddha subdivision in South Waziristan on Wednesday.

The woman killed in the raid is said to be second wife of Pakistan’s most wanted militant leader.
According to local people and official sources, two missiles fired from a drone hit the house of Baitullah’s father-in-law Malik Ikramuddin Khan in Zangara area at about 1 am.

Muhammad Iqbal, a nephew of Malik Ikramuddin, said two people, besides Baitullah’s wife, had been killed.

Security officials, however, said that two people, including Baitullah’s wife, had been killed. Baitullah married the daughter of Malik Ikramuddin last year. It could not be confirmed if Baitullah was in the house at the time of the attack.

‘He is not a fool to be at a place he knew could be a target,’ a senior security official said.

But there were rumours that the TTP chief had also been killed in the attack. These rumours intensified in the evening mainly because there were no confirmed reports about the identity of the two militants killed in the missile strike.

The TTP itself has not said anything about the drone attack or the identity of the militants killed. Officials also did not go beyond confirming the death of Baitullah’s wife.

‘We cannot say anything unless we get a confirmation ourselves,’ a senior government official said.

Baitullah Mehsud is the chief of the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and he is wanted both in Pakistan and the United States and carries millions of dollars on his head.

Baitullah’s father-in-law Ikramuddin is a member of the Taliban shura and had been shuttling between the TTP leader and the government to broker a peace deal.

But such efforts were abandoned after the United States started objecting to new peace overtures in the region.

The latest drone attack came at a time when elders of the Mehsud tribe had gone to Islamabad for talks with senior officials to work out an amicable solution to the situation in South Waziristan.

The government has deployed thousands of troops in the region to fight Baitullah’s supporters.

Double post sorry---

The wife of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud died in a suspected US missile strike today, and Pakistani intelligence officials were checking whether Mehsud was among those killed. A relative of Mehsud's dead wife said the Taliban leader was not present when the missiles struck a house belonging to his father-in-law in Makeen, a remote village in the South Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

The missiles were believed to have been fired by a pilotless drone aircraft. The almost inaccessible village of Makeen is in the heart of Mehsud lands in South Waziristan and thousands of fighters protect the Taliban chieftain's mountainous redoubt.

The United States has placed a $5 million reward on the head of Mehsud, an ally of al Qaeda widely regarded in Pakistan as Public Enemy No. 1. Shortly in the early hours of yesterday morning , two missiles hit the sprawling, high-walled compound of Ikramuddin Mehsud, a cleric whose daughter married Baitullah Mehsud last November. At least two militants were killed in the attack, according to a security official in Waziristan.

Relatives confirmed Mehsud's wife was also killed, and said four children from the extended family living in the house were among the wounded. Ikramuddin's daughter was Mehsud's second wife. Mehsud has no children by his first wife. Under Islamic custom, a man can have four wives. Airpower is a contentious issue in the conflict raging in the ethnic Pashtun tribal lands that straddle Pakistan and Afghanistan, as the guerrillas melt into the population and civilian deaths can harden support for the Taliban.

US drone attacks had hitherto mostly targeted lands held by Taliban leaders from the Wazir tribe, as their territory borders Afghanistan and they have been more involved in the Afghan insurgency. South Waziristan's serrated mountain ridges, dried out river beds and gullies and low chaparral provide perfect terrain for guerrillas, and Mehsud has a force of battle-hardened fighters variously estimated at between 10 000 and more than 20 000.

Analysts believe the army won't risk opening another front until it has finished a campaign against the Taliban in the Swat valley, far to the east and closer to the capital, Islamabad. The military said today that eight militants were killed in Swat and neighbouring districts. More than 1 800 militants have been killed since the Swat campaign began in late April, according to the military, but no independent casualty estimates are available.-Reuters

Baitullah is dead along with his brother and 7 bodyguards.