Video shows Pakistan Taliban boss alive

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100503/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

Video shows Pakistan Taliban boss alive

By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer H. Reid, Associated Press

Writer – Mon May 3, 6:11 pm ET

KABUL – The leader of Pakistan's Taliban appeared in a video Monday threatening

attacks against the U.S. three months after American and Pakistani officials

believed he died in a U.S. missile strike.

Hakimullah Mehsud's emergence occurred as a suicide bomber attacked the gate to

a CIA base where seven agency employees were killed last December. The Pakistan

Taliban claimed responsibility for that bombing, and Monday's attack could have

been aimed at showing that the group was back in business despite months of

setbacks from relentless U.S. missile strikes and a Pakistani military

offensive.

The Pakistan Taliban have also claimed responsibility for an attempted car

bombing last weekend in New York City's Times Square — a claim that New York

officials question.

U.S. and Pakistani officials had been confident until recently that the

ruthless, 30-year-old Mehsud had been killed in a January missile strike along

the boundary between South Waziristan and North Waziristan — tribal areas along

Pakistan's border with Afghanistan where Islamist militant groups operate with

near impunity.

A video posted on militant websites and broadcast Monday by Pakistani television

showed Mehsud seated between two masked, armed men, speaking in Pashto with

English subtitles.

" Praise be to God, on the 4th day of April 2010, I give good news to the Muslim

world about being alive and healthy, " Mehsud said.

He said Taliban fighters " have penetrated the terrorist America " and will " give

extremely painful blows to the fanatic America. " He also warned Washington's

NATO allies that " you will face even worse humiliation, destruction and defeat

than America itself " if they continue to support the U.S.-led war effort.

A second, shorter video included a still picture of Mehsud next to a map of the

United States showing explosions in three unidentified cities coast to coast,

according to IntelCenter, a U.S.-based militant media monitor.

A voice that sounded like Mehsud said in the main Pakistani language of Urdu

that the group's main targets would be American cities and that " good news will

be heard within some days or weeks. "

The missile strike that was believed to have killed Mehsud took place about 10

days after the release of a video showing the militant leader seated next to

Jordanian doctor Humam Khalil al-Balawi, who carried out the Dec. 30 suicide

attack against the CIA base at Camp Chapman in eastern Afghanistan.

Mehsud's appearance in that video reinforced his group's claim to have played a

significant role in the December attack, in which seven CIA employees and a

Jordanian intelligence officer died. The missile strike against Mehsud was

widely seen as payback for one of the deadliest attacks in the history of the

U.S. spy agency.

As the video showing Mehsud alive appeared Monday, a suicide bomber detonated an

explosives-filled truck outside the gate of the same CIA base, located in

Afghanistan's Khost province. The Afghan Interior Ministry said one civilian was

killed and two others were wounded in Monday's attack. A U.S. Army spokesman

said only the bomber died but two other people were wounded.

U.S. Army Maj. Platt, spokesman for the 3rd Brigade Combat Team at nearby

Salerno Camp, said the bomber blew himself up in an area where vehicles are

screened before entering.

" The explosion was very strong and thick smoke covered the sky afterward, " said

Wali Mohammad, 17, who was working at a construction site nearby.

U.S. officials discounted speculation that Monday's bombing at Camp Chapman was

linked to Mehsud's re-emergence after months of silence.

However, the latest videos — including threats against the U.S. and the possibly

spurious claim of responsibility for the failed Times Square car bomb — appeared

to be aimed at bolstering morale in the Pakistan Taliban, who were routed from

their sanctuaries in the border region of South Waziristan by a Pakistani

military offensive last year.

In Washington last week, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said he had seen " no

evidence " that Mehsud " is operational today or is executing or exerting

authority over the Pakistan Taliban which he once did. "

The Pakistan Taliban was organized in late 2007 under the leadership of

Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a U.S. missile strike last August that

brought Hakimullah Mehsud, no relation, to power. The Pakistani wing has

acknowledged the leadership of the Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad

but operates with considerable autonomy, staging attacks in Pakistan and across

the border in Afghanistan.

U.S. and Pakistani officials believe the group also has ties to al-Qaida and

other Islamist extremist organizations in the lawless border area.

In Germany, the news website Spiegel Online reported Monday that a German-born

Islamic militant linked to a group convicted of plotting attacks on U.S.

facilities in Germany has been killed in Pakistan. The website said h

Breininger, who had been sought by German prosecutors since 2008 on suspicion of

belonging to a terrorist organization, was killed April 30 in a gunfight with

Pakistani troops in the border region with Afghanistan.

Also Monday, the Norwegian military said eight Norwegian soldiers were wounded

the day before in a firefight with insurgents in northern Afghanistan, two of

them seriously. Norwegian spokesman Lien said their convoy came under fire

Sunday while traveling from a base in Faryab province.

In southern Afghanistan, a NATO service member was killed Monday by a roadside

bomb, NATO said. The service member's identity was not released. In Nuristan

province, a civilian contract helicopter crashed while making an emergency

landing due to mechanical problems on a NATO base. NATO said all crew members

survived.

___

Associated Press writers Deb Riechmann and Rahim Faiez in Kabul, and Zarar Khan

and Nahal Toosi in Islamabad contributed to this report.