The U.S. military appears to have conducted yet another “over-the-horizon” strike into Pakistan’s Taliban and al Qaeda-controlled tribal areas. At least 14 Pakistanis and “foreigners” – which means al Qaeda – were killed in a missile attack on the home of a Taliban commander in the tribal agency of Bajaur.

Ed at Hot Air said Mullah Obaidullah Ahkund, the Taliban’s defense minister prior to 2001 and a senior member of Taliban’s Shura Majlis, or executive council, was killed in the attack. But this may be a case of mistaken identity, which happens so often in these types of incidents. Obaidullah was reported to have been arrested in Quetta in February while raising money for the Taliban in Afghanistan. And the Pakistani newspaper Dawn said the home was that of Maulavi Obaidullah, “a local militant commander.”

Regardless of who was killed in the attack, this is the fourth such attack inside Pakistani territory since the end of January. The most successful strike took out Abu Laith al Libi, a senior al Qaeda commander in Afghanistan.

The U.S. military is clearly concerned about the Taliban and al Qaeda’s growing strength in the tribal regions. With the new Pakistani government’s obsession with negotiating with the Taliban and ceding control of the tribal regions and the Northwest Frontier Province to the Taliban, and by default al Qaeda, the U.S. may need to rely on such strikes to take out senior terrorist leaders.

While the removal of terrorist leaders and the destructions of safe houses and camps proves useful in disrupting operations, it does little to change the overall situation, which is characterized by Taliban and al Qaeda control of the territories.

Posted by Bill Roggio at 11:21 AM filed in: Pakistan | Permalink | E-mail the author | E-mail article

Infamous Taliban leader assumes room temperature:

A senior Taliban commander who became a hero to Islamic militants for his role in shooting down a U.S. helicopter in 2005, killing all 16 special forces troops aboard, has been killed by Pakistani security forces, officials and Taliban militants tell CBS News.

Mullah Ismail, a notorious Taliban commander from the Afghan province of Kunar, was killed in a shootout with Pakistani police as he traveled with a kidnapped trader, a local police officer said Wednesday. He was apparently on his way into the lawless Northwest Frontier Province along the Afghan border.

If you read Marcus Luttrell's Lone Survivor or are familiar with Operation Red Wing, you'd recognize Ismail as the incompetent Taliban commander who lost roughly half his force of 150 men to four US Navy SEALs (three of whom died fighting off their attackers). He was later lionized by his fellow bugs for a lucky RPG shot that took down a helicopter full of special forces troops on their way to assist Luttrell's squad. True to form, the press always plays up the Chinook shoot-down and the tragic loss of 16 operators instead of the remarkable heroism and admirable killing power of the SEALs.

Lone Survivor was a New York Times bestseller, and will be made into a feature film next year.

HT: Blackfive

Posted by John Noonan at 01:25 PM filed in: Pakistan | Permalink | E-mail the author | E-mail article

After Monday's elections, it looks like the writing's on the wall for the Pakistani strongman:

Two politicians close to Mr. Musharraf have said in the past week that the president was well aware of the drift in the country against him and they suggested that he would not remain in office if the new government was in direct opposition to him. 'He does not have the fire in the belly for another fight,' said one member of his party. He added that Mr. Musharraf was building a house for himself in Islamabad and would be ready soon to move.

On a conference call this morning, Council on Foreign Relations scholar Daniel Markey said that this week's elections "could be the end" of Musharraf's party, the Muslim League-Q. Most of the U.S. coverage of the Pakistani elections has interpreted the results as a "blow" or "setback" to the Bush administration, but Markey noted that "A lot of Pakistanis voted for reasons that had nothing to do with Musharraf's relationship with the United States." Moreover, the major Islamist party, the MMA, lost seats in the Northwest Frontier province. It is hard to argue that elections which promote civilian rule and deal a blow to Islamic extremists are a "setback" for the United States and liberalism.

During the conference call, Markey predicted a period of tumult in Islamabad as the election winners jostle to form a coalition government. That may mean, Markey went on, that in the "near term ... all of the Pakistani political leaders will be very distracted from issues that the United States cares about." It's worth asking, though: compared to whom? Because it is not as if the generals, the ISI, and Musharraf have paid much attention recently to the "issues that the United States cares about" either.

Posted by Matthew Continetti at 12:06 PM filed in: Pakistan | Permalink | E-mail the author | E-mail article