World | Pakistan
Taliban anger suggests loss of key figure
The Taliban are unusually angry about the latest suspected US missile strike in Pakistan, indicating that a top militant may have died, officials and residents said yesterday as the death toll from the attack rose to 24.
- AP
- Published: 23:25 October 5, 2008
Dera Ismail Khan: The Taliban are unusually angry about the latest suspected US missile strike in Pakistan, indicating that a top militant may have died, officials and residents said yesterday as the death toll from the attack rose to 24.
The US has ramped up cross-border strikes on alleged Al Qaida and Taliban targets along Pakistan's side of the border with Afghanistan, straining the two nations' anti-terrorism alliance.
The US says pockets of Pakistan's border region, especially in its semi-autonomous tribal areas, are bases for militants attacking American and Nato forces in Afghanistan. The frontier region is believed to be a possible hiding place for Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman Al Zawahri, and several Arab militants were said to be among the dead in Friday's strike in the North Waziristan tribal region.
Two Pakistani intelligence officials said that over the weekend two people wounded in the attack died at a hospital in Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to news media, said the overall death toll had reached 24.
Locals bad-mouthed
Based on information from informants and agents in the field, the intelligence officials said the Taliban appeared unusually perturbed over the latest attack but could not confirm whether a senior militant had been killed.
The insurgents had taken to menacing local residents with swear terms like "saleable commodities" - a reference to people serving as government spies, the officials said.
The Taliban could not be reached for comment yesterday. Neither could spokespersons of the government or military. Earlier, army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said initial reports pointed to at least 20 deaths in the US missile attack. He said there was speculation that many were foreign militants, but cautioned that the army was awaiting a detailed report.
The US rarely acknowledges such attacks. First Lt Nathan Perry, a spokesman for the US-led coalition in Afghanistan, said he had "no information to give" about the reported attacks but did not deny US involvement.
Pakistan's military and civilian leaders have complained that local communities incensed by the attacks only make it harder to crack down on terrorists.
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