Pakistan Taliban vows to avenge leader's death

Pakistan's new Taliban leader vowed to avenge a United States missile strike that killed his predecessor Baitullah Mehsud, but analysts said Wednesday the extremist outfit has been greatly weakened.

Pakistani and U.S. officials have been saying for weeks that Mehsud was killed when a missile from a U.S. drone aircraft hit his father-in-law's home on Aug. 5, but Taliban officials insisted the feared warlord was simply ill.

According to media reports Hakimullah Mehsud and Waliur Rehman, both Taliban commanders, called news agencies Tuesday evening on the same phone to make the announcement.

New Taliban leader

Each said Baitullah Mehsud died only on Sunday, though they acknowledged it was from wounds in the missile attack.

"He was wounded. He got the wounds in a drone strike and he was martyred two days ago," Hakimullah said. Rehman later repeated the same statement.

The two, who had served as top aides to Mehsud, said they were calling together to dispel reports of disunity in the Taliban leadership, and both said Hakimullah now leads the Pakistani Taliban, thus putting an end to claims, counter-claims and rumors that emerged over who would fill the shoes of Pakistan's most-wanted man.

"Now the shura (meeting of elders) has unanimously appointed me as new amir (head) of Tehreek-e-Taliban... We will take revenge and soon. We will give our reply to this drone attack to America."

He said the other top contender for Taliban leadership, Rehman, had been named militant chief for South Waziristan, and denied any infighting.

But observers and analysts say that rifts remain, with the two militant commanders apparently entering into a power-sharing deal.

Now the shura has unanimously appointed me as new amir of Tehreek-e-Taliban... We will take revenge and soon. We will give our reply to this drone attack to America

Hakimullah Mehsud

"Great loss" to extremists

Brigadier Mahmoud Shah, former security chief of Pakistan's northwest tribal areas, said Mehsud's death was a "great loss" to the extremists.

"There has been infighting among different groups which finally resulted in the division of power and authority in the TTP," he told AFP.

Hakimullah, believed to be about 30-years-old, made a name for himself within the militant structure with his ruthless rule in the tribal districts of Orakzai, Khyber and Kurram, security officials say.

He was behind many attacks on NATO supply trucks heading to foreign troops over the border in Afghanistan, once posing for journalists with a U.S. military Humvee vehicle reportedly snatched from one of the convoys.

Mehsud was Pakistan's most-wanted militant, with a five million dollar U.S. bounty on his head. The government has blamed the TTP for most of the attacks which have killed more than 2,000 people here in the last two years.

Washington, meanwhile, had branded Mehsud a "key al-Qaeda facilitator" in the tribal areas.

The TTP operates out of Pakistan's semi-autonomous districts along the Afghan border, where al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels carved out a base after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion pushed them out of neighboring Afghanistan.

There has been infighting among different groups which finally resulted in the division of power and authority in the TTP

Pakistani brigadier Mahmoud Shah