There are strong indications that a top Pakistani Taliban leader was killed in a US air attack in the South Waziristan tribal area of Pakistan. The White House has just said although they can’t confirm the death, there seems to be a growing consensus that Baitullah Mehsud had been killed.
According to his aides, Baitullah Mehsud, the head of the Tehrik-i-Taliban in Pakistan died when US missiles hit the house where he was staying. His wife is also believed to have been killed in the attack.
Mehsud has been the most wanted man in the fight against the Taliban for a while now. He has been blamed for a string of suicide attacks in Pakistan. He was also accused of being behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, although he has denied this.
His death is believed to be a great boost for the American and Pakistani forces in the fight against the Taliban.
Many people from Pakistan and around the world are glad to hear the news.
‘Good riddance,” says Dr. Roy from Canada on his blog.
But others remain sceptical. This blogger says: ”Now that his part has been played, sufficiently terrorizing the local yokels in preparation for the next act, the next carefully-groomed character actor can come forth and play his part.”
Are you celebrating Baitullah Mehsud’s death? Will it make a difference for Pakistan’s security and in the fight against the Taliban, or are there others waiting to take his place?
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BBC World Have Your Say 
1. Let’s hope it’s true,
2. hopefully there’s no immediate successor to him and
3. let’s hope his death plunges the Taliban into Chaos, which would make them more vulnerable and easier to get.
Baitullah Mehsud death: I am not celebrating it since, he has been “killed” and, having “party” in a death is unacceptable….
There are also, leaders in the Leadership of Al-Qaeda, they have them in stock-pile and also in safe locations to keep them from getting killed….
Pakistani security and the death: No, it’s doesn’t improve it…
~Dennis Junior~
They haven’t proven he is dead yet. Death isn’t something to be celebrated. I’m not an uncivilised beast that runs around in the streets rejoicing at the death of my enemies.
Sadly if he is dead the Hydra(Taliban) will grow more powerful. Unsubstantiated reports state that three potential leaders are already in a meeting with the leadership team discussing who will succeed him.
NOBODY WINS A WAR. WARS BEGET WARS as they foment generational hate and bitterness that is almost impossible to quell.
An American fired missile strike killed some real enemies and not civilians?
The Law of averages had to happen sooner or later.
I don’t believe it myself.
@ Stephen in Portland/Oregon
You got that right!!
Mehsud was a king-pin and his death once confirmed would be a moment for rejoicing. Of course he will be replaced by an equally ruthless terrorist. But terrorism is like a cancer that needs to be eradicated. Using drones to target terrorists is paying rich dividends. Terrorists are misguided individuals who are determined to create mayhem. A strong message has to be sent to these callous murderers that crime does not pay.
I think the terrorist “leaders” just follow the pattern of having others kill and take the risks and die so they can achieve their goal. Because the terrorist attacks are cowardly attacks against people who are unarmed and don’t even have a minute to protect themselves,the goals of the terrorist”leaders”must be secret and very selfish;their only promise being death and the 72 virgins we hear about.
One leader is down and may be seen as a martyr. There are probably about 25 more current ones to go. The probably about ten times that more to step up. As Tootal pointed out, it is not about conventional victory terms, it is the dissolution of the organization that will result in victory. This is more a matter of developing the havens of the Taliban than crushing the Taliban. Both points are equally important.
I’m hoping for the same things Konstantin is hoping for, but I think it’s going to take more than Mr. Meshud’s death.
I may be glad when someone who expresses so much evil is no longer on the scene, but no – I don’t celebrate death.
It sounds like Argentina celebrating after sinking a british ship during falklands war! Too childish to ask such a question on your part.
Basically all the war on terror did was to scatter the seeds of terrorism. Before the terrorist elements were just in Afghanistan, now they are in Pakistan, Yemen, Morocco, Somalia, UK, US and God knows where again. The war also had the added effect of fuelling sympathisers and copycats.
I don’t think the seeds have been scattered. These people most likely have been in many different places. Just because there is a location in a news report it means nothing regarding how long the person or group has been there;we could discover a distant star in the event that it pairs up in alignment with three other stars. The brightness is all we see. And the four stars creating increased brightness have been there for aeons. And the brightness is not a new star. All things are relative;our perspective is subjective.
If the Taliban leader in Pakistan Baitullah Mehsud is truly dead, this can be seen as a great relief to the Pakistani army although the raid was carried out by the American forces.
There is, however, the daunting question: after his death how long his legacy can survive among his supporters. Should Pakistan be ready for revenge attacks by his supporters to show that their movement isn’t dead.
Perhaps, his death can be an opportunity for the Pakistani government to approach other Taliban leaders to enter a peaceful era based on mutual acceptance instead of ongoing killings on both sides. Maybe the integration of Taliban movement in the political mainstream will make it easy for the US forces to capture Al Qaeda rings that are enjoying protection from the Pakistani Taliban in the torturous and inaccessible mountains.
@Stephen in Portland/Oregon
Your statement
“An American fired missile strike killed some real enemies and not civilians?
The Law of averages had to happen sooner or later”.
So Stephen what about the countless number of civilians killed in an attempt to get the leaders of Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Were they collateral damage in achieving the armies objective? Does your heart bleed fo them?
@ Deryck/Trinidad
You’ve missed Stephen’s point Deryck. I think he is trying to drawing attention to the countless number of civilians killed.
What about the countless number of sons and men who will never do more than die killing themselves?Without someone initiating their actions I know they wouldn’t be killing themselves the way they are. I honestly don’t know why they are doing it but for a misguided belief. I have heard people who know more about the Koran than I do say that you aren’t supposed to kill yourself. To mention pity or someone’s heart bleeding,they are victims of themselves and the”leaders”who send them to kill. I pity the victims of the attacks. I pity them for their misguided beliefs.
I would just like to add that having any American celebrate the death of any radical Islamic leader is a little like throwing gasoline on a fire you’re trying to put out.
I hate to say it, but there are some places that need to just be bombed beyond recognition. These are the places where everyone shares the Terrorist mentality, when the women hate and teach their kids to hate along with the men. When you kill a weed, you gotta get it by the root. When you destroy cancer , you have to get all of it, not just a little bit.
-Anthony, LA, CA
Hello again
And hello Anthony. My first reply to your comment was censored but I think it is worth repeating to maintain the balance.
My reply to your comment was: ‘you are talking about the USA’
The hatred in your comment was what provoked my response.
Of course WHYS with an agenda very pro-American censored it as they will this comment. But it does’nt matter because it means that WHYS knows that there are people, still in existence, with slightly different opinions.
Jim
If this guy is indeed dead I’m definitely not celebrating, he was after all a human being however twisted and murderous.
I wonder if the ones really doing the celebrating are all those who will consider him a martyr, now enjoying all the fringe benefits that supposedly go along with than in Heaven. Of course people get killed in wars and the aim of armies is to kill members of opposing armies, precisely the reason why the “war” on terror was such a stupid idea in the first place. Forget “hearts and minds” that’s not what armies are for.
One martyr down, plenty more to take his place and even more standing in the queue at the recruiting offices, the mosques and religious schools that warp minds in the first place.
Linda
Deryck, wars only beget wars if people are taught to hate. In the muslim world it’s pretty wide spread to teach hatred of others. The US and Canada have fought wars, the US and Britain have fought wars, and we don’t hate each other. We weren’t taught to hate each other, though we joke around with each other.
The reports have confirmed that Baitullah has Died.
Like the Taliban in Sawat
Such Loose Groups are based around a Center of Gravity that is their Leader.
and once the ring leader is out they end pretty quick
The Proof of that is the high number of Taliban surrendering rather then embracing “Martyrdom” with 50 Taliban Surrendering in Bunair today shows that they have lost the will to fight
Baitullah’s Death is being Celebrated in Pakistan and in the Pakistani Community around the world but not with the Thought in mind that thousands of these Terrorists are still out there and need to be completely neutralized
“Celebrating” Death…is a grotesque thought…and insensitive in an atavistic sense to be used as a headline title by WHYS.
In civil societies deaths of tyrants and terrorists should not be mourned but atleast regreted but certainly not celebrated….for these Saddams, Hitlers & Masoods are a sad reality of our societies, created by the distortions in society and governments.
On Masood itself……he wasn’t the cause…but a symptom of disease….a mere front-end that will be replaced by another…the tip…with the giant iceberg still below water and untouched.
The deep-rooted disease is 5 decades of promotions of culture by Pakistani military and ISI….that has created a Frankenstien that they no longer control
wouldn’t use the world ‘celebrating’ as it sounds unethical while talking about someones death. But yes its indeed a great blow to the Taliban in Pakistan.Keeping in mind that the army had particularly defined their target as Baitullah while they went in to Waziristan. Now to define your target so boldly, puts an army to a great challenge. Provided that anything and everything other than what they have as ‘defined target’ isnt really considered a success. So yes, this indeed is a great step forward and if utilized could be said to crush down taliban for a significant amount of time. The matter now is how well the army uses this time to benefit the war.
This is a Hydra type organization, not an all dependent, “kill the head and the body will die”, type. When all the bombings and attacks on civilians have ceased, then we will be getting somewhere…….
I will celebrate when the whole mess is done.
Rob.
There is a lot more to conflict in and suicide bombing than one man even if his name is/was Baitullah Mehsud. I will be more in the celebration mood if a large cache of weapons were to be intercepted, or if an insurgents’ training school were discovered and destroyed.
Besides, Mehsud was just a man; somebody’s brother, son, neighbor, friend, cousin… just like me. He may not have been a very good man, but he was a man anyhow. And we shouldn’t be celebrating the death of a fellow man.
ha ha ha. you whys, i am going to boycott you next week for not allowing my previous comment!
@Anthony – you might want to rethink your position…..because what you say about them is the same that they say about us…..i.e. bomb them/us out of existence – this thought process doesn’t accomplish much and ends up being counterproductive.
Mass death doesn’t really help much. I can’t say I am happy or sad that the guy is possibly gone, but I can say that I wish we could find a better way to solve this besides putting our men/woman and their men/woman/children in harms way.
Well said Julia!
The main task of the Pakistani government is to arrive to a peaceful situation with the Taliban under a new leadership. The death of Baitullah Mehsud doesn’t necessarily mean the end of Taliban in Pakistan.
The Taliban leadership must be politically savvy. They won’t have to wait for the death of Baitullah Mehsud to have a new leader. They must have a waiting list of a possible successive leader. This also should be taken into account in the aftermath of the presumed death of Baitullah Mehsud.
I have the same question today as I did yesterday for the retired officer: Do drone bombings do more to alienate non-combatants and forge the population around martyrs than warrants the strategic military pursuit of remote control targeted assassination?
Death is never to be celebrated, however this is war and he is a liegitamate target under the circumstances, so his death can be considered legitamate – not a cause for celebration.
As forthe effect on the Taliban, that is left to be seen. I am sure they planned for this and is simply a matter of putting their plan n place
Brad from Trinidad
Deryck/Trinidad
We are both singing from the same hymn sheet my friend, I could have put it better.
My own father survived a Bad American Airstick when he was serving in the King’s own Scottish borderers in Korea in 1951. There aim has not improved since then. And you are bang on with what you are saying about the countless number of civilians killed in an attempt to get the leaders of Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
It just make more terrorists!
It’s like offing a cockroach — there’s hundreds more where that one came from … sure, let celebrate the passing of one more dirtbag, but in the long run, it won’t make that much difference — it’s pretty much symbolic … a daisycutter on his funeral might take out a bunch of his idiot buddies & replacement hopefuls, tho – tMC
Ramesh, India says:
It sounds like Argentina celebrating after sinking a british ship during falklands war! Too childish to ask such a question on your part.
Couldn’t agree more.
It seems that many of us have been socialised to be warmongers, bigots and oppressors. A little search of history will reveal the genesis of these terrorist attacks and circumstances undergirding it. Do you think that suddenly one day the Taliban and Al Qaeda formed and decided to attack for NO REASON?
Do we believe as a people who belong to the West that a life of an american or british citizen is worh more than that of an Afghan or Pakistani?
RE “” Are you celebrating Baitullah Mehsud’s death? “”
—————————————————————————————————————————–
———- My Christian religious beliefs forbid celebrating the misfortune of anyone no matter how heinous the person.
I understand the necessity of war and self defense which is an inalienable natural right of mankind, so it’s a sad state of affairs when it comes down to the taking of life, I believe this week was the anniversary of Hiroshima which was another operation born of war between two opposing political states. Many celebrate victories in war, but also many religious persuasions privately say a prayer or otherwise pay their respects for the vanquished victims and survivors.
It’s a longtime spiritual tradition that predates formal religious doctrines that binds people around the world independent of the dynamic of peace or conflict between cultures or political states..
Celebrating death is too primitvely barbaric to be contemplated. And in any event, it would be utterly uncalled for even in this case.
One of the few things George W got right, and it was early on, was that the war on terror cannot be about specific individuals. I think was was exactly right on that point.
There is no shortage for Al Qaeda leaders. More are available every day. What needs to be done is to stop the water supply to the roots of the plant. Or availability of sunlight to the leaves.
Sorry. But I can’t help seeing the irony here. The White House says MAYBE he’s dead. Sounds like them saying Bin Laden might be dead too.
Doesn’t exactly make for good war-on-terror PR, does it?
To answer the question – No, any violent death occasioned by one human over another is not an event to be celebrated, its an event on which to reflect.
Entities such as the Taliban, al-Qaeda, the IRA, ETA do not have a single centre of power like a monarchy, a presidential republic, or a personality cult based regime (eg DPRK or SAR), they are autonomous groups with common goals and sentiments – in other contexts we might use the word movement. In the IRA we can find the Official, Provisional, Real and Continuity groups. So the killing of one person will have little effect, his group will coalesce around a new leader, someone else will take up the role he’s been fulfilling in the wider movement.
Contrast the killing of Baitullah Mehsud in Pakistan with that of the shooting of Noordin Mohammad Top in Indonesia within the past 24 hours.
Baitullah Mehsud was killed by a clandestine guided missile launched from a remote controlled aircraft, that would have also destroyed buildings and may have killed women & children. Noordin Top was reportedly killed on camera by 2 policemen shooting through the door of the toilet in which he was hiding with weapons and a bomb, prior to that he is said to have been repeatedly asked to surrender.
Noordin Top is alleged to have been responsible for bomb attacks in Bali, on Jakarta hotels (twice) and the Australian Embassy amongst others. Several other attempted bombings that were foiled by the Indonesian Police were also alleged to have been planned by Noordin Top.
He was a murderous thug, as US authorities described and possibly Pakistan is freed from his torror now. Pakistanis don’t need to analyse this news out of pessimism supposing that there’d soon be a new leader. Afterall, had he not been so important to Taliban, “Why would his probable death quote the headlines ??”
Ground verfication does not support this news published by international media.
Look and wait,it will some time in clearing the reality.
I would rather be ‘probably’ killed than probably killed.
Des Currie.
and throwing water over WHYS’s celebrations…..Meshud decalres himself alive today.
Hello again
As usual everybody is talking about terrorists and terrorism without knowing what terrorism is. As there has been no internationally accepted definition of terrorism Baitullah Mehsud could be considered as a hero in the fight against USA hegemony – in fact a resistance fighter. As is well known all resistance fighters are considered by the powers that be as terrorists.
Just a thought to be obliterated by the censor.
Yours Jim
Terrorists aren’t fighting for a country. They aren’t fighting for a leader. They aren’t fighting at all. They attack civillians who cannot protect or defend themselves. The Nazis also aimed at a defenseless civillian population. The terrorists who die are schooled to believe there is glory in death;the ultimate deceit to cause someone to risk their life and lose it is to bring God or Allah into the lie. Not fighting for any cause but death makes me think if they”win”there would only be more death as the future unfolds. Madmen and murderers are not the reason anyone should live and die for.
Wow, that’s probably the most offensive piece of hyper-liberal garbage I have ever read. Your naiveté is sickening. US hegemony (nice use of the standard academic jargon by the way) may in fact be a problem, but so is nauseating moral relativism. FYI this guy is involved in a group that kidnaps children to force them into suicide bombing missions, uses rape as a war tactic and kills young girls for attempting to go to school. Yay for this noble “resistance fighter”!!!
Hello again
And hello NSC London. Thank you for putting me right.
Jim
Why should one be celebrating?
If the core of the problems of global insurgence is not properly and adequately tackled and nabbed in the bud, there will be no end to terrorism.
Eradicate poverty and oppression. That should be the top priority and goal of all nations.
(btt1943)
When you live by the sword, you die by the sword. And when your method is to terrorize others with violence, you must live your own live in constant terror of another drone attack. The most terrifying thing about the drones is that you can’t hear them or even see them if you look into the sky on a cloudless day. It comes like a bolt from heaven – the perfect end for murderous religious hypocrites like Baitullah Mehsud.
Hello again
And hello Stephen. Where all the other victims of the drones murderous religous hypocrites as well?
Just asking.
Jim
In my earlier posting: Baitullah Mehsud death has yet been confirmed by any of the Intelligence Agencies around the world….
~Dennis Junior~
Good. Maybe now that will knock some sense into them.
WE depende reliable and independent sources and begin spread rumour
but the fact is the Baitullah Mehsud badly injured in the predator dron attacke,
he was taken to pointed place already set for treatment of injured extrimists,
he was treated but failed,he expired really expired.
After his death,
a new chapter of terrorism is going open,
Talban are insearch of new cheif which not vailable.
On this issue a sever conflict has begun.
According to news ,available from natives coming fr0m the side,telling stories,
attached to recent clash,
supporters of Hakimullah and Wali ur rehman are fighting eachothers,
some deaths happened but the disputed matter in regard to nomination as cheif of TTP is still unresolved.
Celebrate this guy’s death? That might be going a bit too far. I’d give it a golf clap at most.