A US drone strike has killed the deputy chief of the Pakistani Taliban in the country’s lawless tribal northwest, officials said, dealing a major blow to the militant network.
Waliur Rehman, the number two in the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) faction, died along with at least five others when an unmanned US drone fired two missiles on a house in North Waziristan district.
Pakistani security sources told AFP that Rehman, who had a $5 million US government bounty on his head, was the target of the strike.
But senior officials in Washington stuck to their normal practice of declining to provide details of US operations, and only hinted that Rehman, wanted for attacks on Americans and Pakistanis, had been killed.
The attack appeared to be the first known US drone strike since Obama’s speech last week laying out new criteria for the covert use of unmanned aerial vehicles in strikes against terror suspects and militants.
“We are not in a position to confirm the reports of Waliur Rehman’s death,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
Officials in several towns, as well as tribal and intelligence sources, confirmed Rehman’s death in the attack in Chashma village near Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan district, a stronghold of Taliban and al-Qa’ida-linked militants.
Security officials said the others killed in the attack were also TTP cadres and included two of the outfit’s local-level commanders. There were no initial reports of civilian casualties.
Washington had accused Rehman of organising attacks against US and NATO forces in Afghanistan and also wanted him in connection with a suicide attack on an American base in Afghanistan in 2009 that killed seven CIA agents.
Rehman had been a key figure in the TTP since its inception in 2007 and was second-in-command of the national hierarchy behind Hakimullah Mehsud, as well as leading the group in South Waziristan.
The loss of such a senior leader will come as a blow to the TTP, which has waged a bloody campaign of bombings against the Pakistani state in recent years, though Rehman was seen as more moderate – relatively – than Mehsud.
Rehman came from a religious background and set up his own seminary in his native South Waziristan, teaching children before turning to militancy.
Pakistan’s incoming prime minister Nawaz Sharif has supported the idea of peace talks with the Taliban and sources said there had been the impression that Rehman could have had a role to play in the process.
Washington says drone strikes have been an effective tool in wiping out important Taliban and al-Qa’ida figures in the militant-infested badlands along the Afghan border.
But they have been unpopular in Pakistan, where the government publicly denounces them as illegal and a violation of sovereignty – though leaked diplomatic cables indicate Islamabad has privately supported them in the past.
Mr Obama last week defended the legality of the CIA-run strikes, which began in Pakistan in 2004 and became more frequent during his presidency. But he outlined new rules for their use.
The guidelines say drone strikes can only be used to prevent imminent attacks, when the capture of a suspect is not feasible and if there is a “near certainty” that civilians will not be killed.
Wednesday’s attack was the first since Pakistan’s May 11 general election, won by Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N.
Mr Sharif, due to assume office on June 5, has called the drone strikes a “challenge” to his country’s sovereignty and said Washington must take Pakistani concerns seriously.
According to Britain’s Bureau of Investigative Journalism, CIA drone attacks targeting suspected al-Qa’ida and Taliban militants in Pakistan have killed up to 3587 people since 2004, including as many as 884 civilians.
The frequency of drone strikes in Pakistan has tailed off in recent months, the last coming on April 17.
On Sunday US Secretary of State John Kerry said this was because the tactic had “been so successful in rooting out al-Qa’ida in Pakistan” and was only used after targets were confirmed “at the highest levels”.
Đăng ký: VietNam News