Shootout leaves Pakistan Taliban in turmoil

SBS staff and agencies

The Pakistani Taliban is reportedly in turmoil, following the deadly shootout between contenders to replace its deceased leader Baitullah Mehsud.

Pakistani newspapers carry front-page news of the killing of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (Movement of Pakistani Taliban) leader Baitullah Mehsud (AAP)

Last week, US intelligence officials said Mehsud, who had a $6 million bounty on his head, was killed in a US missile attack.




While Pakistan's government said it was still seeking confirmation of the death, a top US security official was quoted saying the US was confident Mehsud had been killed.




There were also unconfirmed reports of a deadly shooting at a meeting of top Taliban commanders who convened to discuss the choice of a successor to Mehsud.




Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the reports from the meeting in the lawless region of South Waziristan were being investigated.




The commanders were reportedly Hakimullah Mehsud, a deputy to Baitullah Mehsud and the warlord's main spokesman, and Wali-ur Rehman, a senior commander in Mehsud's umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement.




"We have reports that there was fighting between Wali-ur Rehman and Hakimullah.... I said earlier that one of them is dead. I will not disclose the name. I am seeking verification," Malik told private Pakistani TV channel Geo.




"The (shooting) incident took place on Friday and I said in the National Assembly the same day that there was internal fighting between Wali-ur Rehman and Hakimullah," he said.




Mehsud 'still alive'





However, someone claiming to be Hakimullah Mehsud called up media outlets on Saturday to claim Baitullah Mehsud was still alive. The two men are part of the same tribe.




Despite the apparent internal turmoil among the Taliban, security analyst Hasan Askari warned the threat was not over and said Pakistani authorities would have to re-establish control in the tribal areas.




"The current situation practically shows that the government also does not really have access to the area, which makes it difficult to verify the information that is coming through diverse sources," Askari said.




However, he said he believed the TTP had "entered an uncertain phase due to a leadership crisis which may heighten internal conflict".




Mehsud a key figure to al Qaeda: Washington




Baitullah Mehsud has been branded by Washington as "a key al Qaeda facilitator" and has narrowly escaped previous attacks.




He was at the top of the Pakistani government's most-wanted list, having been implicated in the 2007 assassination of prime minister Benazir Bhutto, whose husband is now president.




Mehsud went on to lead a campaign of suicide bombings, assassinations and insurgent attacks that swept out of the border tribal areas into the Swat valley, threatening Islamabad.




The US Central Intelligence Agency, with the tacit cooperation of Islamabad, has carried out dozens of attacks in Pakistan using unmanned Predator and Reaper drones over the past year, but declines to discuss the strikes publicly.




Northwest Pakistan's anarchic tribal areas have been beset by violence since neighbouring Afghanistan's Taliban regime was toppled by the 2001 US-led invasion, prompting hundreds of fighters to flood the region.




US confident of insurgent's death




Meanwhile in Washington, US president Barack Obama's national security adviser told a TV news program the United States believed Mehsud had been killed.




"We think so," Jim Jones told Fox News Sunday when asked if Mehsud was dead.




"The Pakistani government believes he is and all the evidence we have suggests that," he said.




Jones said he could not confirm there had been a shootout between the Pakistan Taliban's leadership rivals.




"We've heard stories about that. I can't confirm it. It certainly appears there is dissension in the ranks. That's not a bad thing for us," Jones said.




21 people killed in Taliban hotspots




Meanwhile, at least 21 people were killed in the latest violence in Taliban hotspots, officials said.




A gunfight on the weekend between militants and supporters of a pro-government tribal elder killed six militants and two tribesmen in the Mohmand tribal region near the Afghan border, they said.




Separately, two civilians and a policeman were killed when militants ambushed a police convoy in the northwestern town of Bannu on Sunday.




Also on Sunday, two Pakistani soldiers were killed and four were wounded near Naurak village in the troubled North Waziristan tribal district when a remote-control bomb targeting a military convoy exploded, officials said.




At least eight dead bodies of suspected Taliban militants were found in different areas of the northwestern Swat valley on Sunday, officials said.