PK Taliban Leader Killed in Drone Strike

TH15

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SLAMABAD –
Intercepted militant radio communications indicate the leader of the Pakistani Taliban may have been killed in a recent U.S. drone strike, Pakistani intelligence officials said Sunday. A Taliban official denied that.
The report coincided with sectarian violence — a bomb blast in eastern Pakistan that killed 14 people in a Shiite religious procession.
The claim that the Pakistani Taliban chief was killed came from officials who said they intercepted a number of Taliban radio conversations. In about a half a dozen intercepts, the militants discussed whether their chief, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed on Jan. 12 in the North Waziristan tribal area. Some militants confirmed Mehsud was dead, and one criticized others for talking about the issue over the radio.
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This would be great news except for the fact that when the bad guys read this they'll know that their comms are compromised.
 
Well we've "killed" this guy a couple of times in the past, I will be happy if this turns out to be true.

But here's the deal, we don't need to be targeting the Pakistani Taliban. Don't get me wrong, I'm quite happy to see them targeted, but the PK TB is a threat to Pakistan. Pakistan is a threat to us. Therefore, by targeting PK TB, we're doing PK a favor, and IMO, Pakistan is all out of favors. We need to be targeting the "real" Taliban and the HQN, if a PK TB target presents itself fine, otherwise, let's concentrate on the people who really matter.
 
:-/

http://tribune.com.pk/story/9685/ttp-chief-hakimullah-mehsud-is-alive-report/

LONDON: Chief of the outlawed Tehrike-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Hakimullah Mehsud, survived a US American drone strike in January and is alive and well, Britain’s Guardian newspaper quoted a senior ISI official as saying on Wednesday.
Mehsud was reported to have died in a CIA drone strike in South Waziristan in January but, although Pakistan’s interior minister claimed he had been killed, the death was never confirmed by either US or Pakistani intelligence. Today the senior intelligence official said he had seen video footage of the missile attack on Mehsud but other intelligence had since confirmed the insurgent leader survived. He declined to elaborate further. “He is alive,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
 
Well we've "killed" this guy a couple of times in the past, I will be happy if this turns out to be true.

But here's the deal, we don't need to be targeting the Pakistani Taliban. Don't get me wrong, I'm quite happy to see them targeted, but the PK TB is a threat to Pakistan. Pakistan is a threat to us. Therefore, by targeting PK TB, we're doing PK a favor, and IMO, Pakistan is all out of favors. We need to be targeting the "real" Taliban and the HQN, if a PK TB target presents itself fine, otherwise, let's concentrate on the people who really matter.
Why are we targeting them? Especially if the number of AQ there is minimal?
 
It's all geopolitics TH15. As easier as it would be to simply target taliban in afghan and focus on that, and as much as Pakistan sucks and we all KNOW and have read of elements of their military and intelligence services giving them and AQ support, the fact is the country is one of the most unstable in the region, and the only islamic country with nukes. Suppose we did pull all our support, country would go into a tail spin rapidly, which could lead to multiple things from war between India and Pakistan, the islamic sympathizers within their government and country gaining power and thus access to nuclear weapons, or yet another failed state in the middle east that turns into terrorist haven HQ as Afghan was in the 90's.

It's really simple to just say "dude pakistan is crap and they are supporting the taliban and AQ" we shouldn't help them with their problems!", but ya have to look at the broader strategic implications to that country going to shit. Thus, their problem (the Pakistani Taliban) sadly becomes our problem. That's not even going into the support both militarily and logistically that the Pakistani Taliban give the Haquanni network, the Afghan Taliban, and AQ. It's all one big geo-political mess.
 
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