Pakistan Taliban chief ruthless and theatrical FEATURE 05/04/2010

Pakistan Taliban chief ruthless and theatrical

FEATURE 05/04/2010 PESHAWAR — Hakimullah Mehsud, Pakistan’s Taliban chief who is seemingly back from the dead, has wielded a ruthless ambition to oversee a dramatic escalation in bloodshed and ally with al-Qaeda. After months of silence since his reported killing by a US missile on January 14 in North Waziristan near the Afghan border, Hakimullah has threatened revenge attacks on major US cities in two purported new videos. Under his leadership, Tehreek-e-Tailban Pakistan (TTP) has been blamed for some of the most audacious attacks in a three-year Islamist bombing campaign, cementing its reputation as Pakistan’s premier national security threat. Young, energetic and with a penchant for the limelight, he took the helm after winning a bitter leadership struggle when a US drone attack killed the faction’s founder, Baitullah Mehsud, in August..... MORE   Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100504com7.html

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