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Pakistan’s Taliban, one of the world’s most feared militant groups, are preparing for a leadership change that could mean less violence against the state but more attacks against U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, Pakistani military sources said.
Hakimullah Mehsud, a ruthless commander who has led the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for the last three years, has lost operational control of the movement and the trust of his fighters, said a senior Pakistan army official based in the South Waziristan tribal region, the group’s stronghold.
The organization’s more moderate deputy leader, Wali-ur-Rehman, 40, is poised to succeed Mehsud, whose extreme violence has alienated enough of his fighters to significantly weaken him, the military sources told Reuters.
“Rehman is fast emerging as a consensus candidate to formally replace Hakimullah,” said the army official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. “Now we may see the brutal commander replaced by a more pragmatic one for whom reconciliation with the Pakistani government has become a priority.”
EXCLUSIVE: New Pakistan Taliban chief emerging, will focus on Afghan fight
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Marines probe video of men urinating on Taliban corpses
The Marine Corps said on Wednesday it would investigate a video showing what appear to be American forces in Afghanistan urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban fighters. -
How the U.S. Came to Negotiate with the Taliban
Peace talks with the Taliban seem a long way to come since the death of Osama bin Laden less than two months ago, where Americans were chanting “USA!” in the streets. The Taliban has been known to shelter Al Qaeda in the past. So what events brought this about?
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centerforinvestigativereporting:
In case you missed it, watch last night’s FRONTLINE, Kill/Capture: Inside the military’s extraordinary secret campaign to take out thousands of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters.
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Tonight on Frontline: "Fighting for bin Laden"
Two inside views of the fight against al Qaeda & the Taliban
9pm on PBS
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These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s Founding Fathers.
Ronald Reagan (1985), speaking about the Taliban (via livesamsara) -
Operations will focus on attacks against military centres, places of gatherings, airbases, ammunition and logistical military convoys of the foreign invaders in all parts of the country
The Taliban has announced the launch of a spring offensive against foreign troops in Afghanistan as well as Afghan security forces and government officials. The statement warned Afghan citizens to stay away from public locations that could be targeted as part of Badar(name of opp), “so that they will not become harmed during attacks of Mujahideen against the enemy”. (source)(Source: newsflick)
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For months, the secret talks unfolding between Taliban and Afghan leaders to end the war appeared to be showing promise, if only because of the repeated appearance of a certain insurgent leader at one end of the table: Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, one of the most senior commanders in the Taliban movement.
But now, it turns out, Mr. Mansour was apparently not Mr. Mansour at all. In an episode that could have been lifted from a spy novel, United States and Afghan officials now say the Afghan man was an impostor, and high-level discussions conducted with the assistance of NATO appear to have achieved little.
“It’s not him,” said a Western diplomat in Kabul intimately involved in the discussions. “And we gave him a lot of money.”
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Secret U.S. Unit Trains Commandos in Pakistan
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