Pakistan

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Taliban Finally Confirm Mehsud's Death

(Newser) - Weeks after a US drone reportedly took out the Taliban's leader in Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud's fellow commanders have confirmed his death. Two Taliban officials—including his successor, Hakimullah Mehsud—tell the BBC that their leader actually died Sunday after being critically injured in the airstrike. The development also clears up...

Taliban Pick Young Leader to Replace Mehsud

But still insist old leader isn't dead

(Newser) - Despite their insistence that a US drone strike didn’t kill their leader, members of Pakistan’s Taliban movement have already replaced him, the BBC reports. Hakimullah Mehsud, a military chief in his late 20s, will succeed Baitullah Mehsud, a close ally reportedly killed earlier this month. The unanimous decision...

CIA Uses Blackwater to Help Run Drone Attacks

(Newser) - The CIA has relied on a secret division inside the company once known as Blackwater for its drone operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan, private employees and government officials tell the New York Times. The for-profit company assembles and loads Hellfire missiles and quarter-ton bombs on secret CIA bases on both...

Top Militant Denies Taliban Shootout

Pakistan insists dead leader's aide killed in power struggle

(Newser) - Days after Pakistan's Taliban leader reportedly died in a US airstrike, conflicting stories are emerging about a power struggle in the militant group, the New York Times reports. Waliur Rehman, a commander who had wanted to lead the Taliban, denies killing a young aide to the former leader in a...

Obama Sharpens Plan to Gauge Afghan Progress

(Newser) - Hoping to allay fears over Afghanistan, President Obama plans to show Congress a new system for measuring US progress there—and holding people accountable when goals fall short, Politico reports. The complex set of indicators will measure nine objectives in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including "the proportion of the Afghan...

Mehsud Is Alive, Says Fellow Commander

(Newser) - US and Pakistani officials say they're all but certain they killed Baitullah Mehsud, yet one of his fellow Taliban commanders says that's just a bunch of "ridiculous" propaganda. Mehsud, he insists to the BBC, is alive and will stay underground for a few days before issuing a public statement....

Officials: Taliban's Mehsud Is Dead

(Newser) - Pakistani officials have confirmed the death of Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban leader, in an American drone strike early Wednesday. While there is still no concrete evidence of his death, the country's foreign minister said today that "he has been taken out." One security official told the New ...

US Drone May Have Killed Taliban Leader Mehsud

(Newser) - Potentially big news out of Pakistan: A US drone may have killed Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, reports Reuters. "There is reason to believe that reports of his death may be true, but it can't be confirmed at this time," said an anonymous US official. Mehsud is an...

US Strike Kills Wife of Pakistan Taliban Chief

(Newser) - A US missile strike today in Pakistan's lawless tribal region killed a wife of Baitullah Mehsud, the Taliban commander, the AP reports. Mehsud has been accused of orchestrating dozens of suicide attacks in Pakistan, including the assassination of former PM Benazir Bhutto in December 2007. The US, as usual, did...

Pakistan Muslims Torch Christian Houses; 6 Dead

Crowd avenges alleged Koran desecration

(Newser) - Six people are dead after Muslim protesters torched houses in a Christian neighborhood of Pakistan’s Gojra City yesterday, CNN reports. The demonstrators, who were protesting an alleged desecration of the Koran at a Christian wedding last weekend, set fire to between 40 and 50 houses. A crowd burned 15...

1 NC Jihadi Still at Large: Feds

(Newser) - Federal prosecutors said today that one member of a North Carolina group that sought to wage "violent jihad" is still at large. US Attorney George Holding says authorities hope to soon apprehend an eighth person described in an indictment unsealed yesterday. The person's name is redacted from court papers.

Taliban's No. 2 a Fierce, Intelligent Opponent of US

Mullah Omar's lieutenant may be really running the insurgency

(Newser) - Though most Americans know of Mullah Omar, head of the Taliban’s insurgency in Afghanistan, few know his capable lieutenant, Mullah Baradar. As a high-profile US target, Omar has kept a low profile over the last 3 years—while Baradar commands day-to-day operations, Newsweek reports. But Baradar’s cunning leadership...

How a Queens Kid Became an al-Qaeda Fighter

'Impressionable' punk fan radicalized himself in search for structure

(Newser) - Just before he left to become an al-Qaeda fighter 2 years ago, Long Island native Bryant Neal Vinas left a box of mementos. Inside were all-American keepsakes like Yankee caps, alongside dog tags and a copy of Inside the Jihad, a book by a spy who infiltrated al-Qaeda. That was...

New Yorker Was 'Ready to Deliver Suicide Bomb'

His terrorist handler told him he needed more religious instruction

(Newser) - A Queens man who pleaded guilty to aiding al-Qaeda was ready and willing to deliver a suicide bomb for the terrorist organization, he revealed to investigators. His handlers told 26-year-old Bryant Neal Vinas, however, that he needed more "religious" training before he could carry out such a mission, he...

Secret 'Batman' Tech Heroes Protect Internet: Prof

(Newser) - The Internet keeps functioning thanks to the efforts of an army of unsung heroes, a Harvard cyberlaw expert told a tech conference yesterday. The professor used as an example Pakistan's attempt last year to take YouTube offline—the site went down across the world, but volunteers from a tech forum...

US Missile Kills Son of Bin Laden
US Missile
Kills Son of
Bin Laden
Jul 22, 2009 6:58 PM CDT

US Missile Kills Son of Bin Laden

Officials think drone strike hit him in Pakistan

(Newser) - The US is pretty sure that an American missile killed Osama bin Laden's son in Pakistan, reports NPR. Spy agencies are "80 to 85%" certain that a missile from a US drone killed Saad bin Laden, thought to be in his late 20s, sometime in the last year. Saad...

US Man Charged in Afghanistan Rocket Attack

Long Islander also gave al-Qaeda info on NYC mass transit: feds

(Newser) - An American arrested in Pakistan last fall faces charges for firing rockets at a US military base in Afghanistan, the New York Times reports. Bryant Neal Vinas, 26, also allegedly gave al-Qaeda detailed information about the New York City transit system and Long Island Railroad in return for military training.

US Afghan Surge Angers Pakistan

(Newser) - The American offensive in southern Afghanistan is sparking serious tensions with Pakistan, the New York Times reports. Pakistani officials fear that the surge will push Taliban militants into its border region, triggering a rise in militancy that it will be ill-equipped to tackle without shifting troops from the Indian border....

Captured US Soldier May Be in Pakistan

Fox News 'expert' suggests that Taliban execute Bergdahl

(Newser) - The American soldier captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan may be in Pakistan, a potentially huge stumbling block in the quest to free the 23-year-old, ABC News reports. If the insurgent group that apparently kidnapped him has indeed moved Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl over the border to South Waziristan, the American...

Gunman Pleads Guilty to Mumbai Attacks

(Newser) - The only surviving gunman of the deadly terror attacks in Mumbai admitted his role in the November rampage in a dramatic courtroom confession today, reports the Times of India. "Sir, I plead guilty to my crime," Ajmal Kasab told the presiding judge, before describing how the attacks...

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