PESHAWAR: The wife of Pakistani Taleban chief Baitullah Mehsud was killed on Wednesday in a US drone attack targeting her husband at a home in the tribal belt near the Afghan border, officials said.
Suspected US unmanned aircraft and Pakistani strikes have increasingly focused on strongholds of Mehsud, whom Washington calls a key Al-Qaeda facilitator. There is a $5 million bounty on his head.
The house targeted Wednesday belonged to Maulana Ikram-ud-Din, Mehsud’s father-in-law in Laddah village in South Waziristan, part of Pakistan’s tribal region.
“We have confirmed reports that wife of Baitullah Mehsud died in this US drone attack,” said an administration official in South Waziristan.
A senior Pakistani security official told AFP that the target was Mehsud, but had no confirmation on whether he was at the property when the attack happened or whether he was hurt.
Officials confirmed initially that two militants were killed when at least one missile slammed into the building at around 1:30 a.m. (1930 GMT Tuesday).
Iqbal Mehsud, a nephew of Ikram-ud-Din, said Mehsud’s wife was killed and four of Ikram-ud-Din’s grandchildren were wounded, but said he had spoken to his uncle and he was “safe.”
Mehsud married Ikram-ud-Din’s daughter late last year. The house was destroyed in the attack and local residents said Mehsud’s men cordoned off the site and were sifting through the rubble.
Washington has put Pakistan at the heart of the fight against Al-Qaeda and has deployed an extra 21,000 troops in Afghanistan in a bid to stabilize the neighboring country for elections as part of a sweeping new war plan.
Pakistan has also carried out airstrikes against Mehsud hide-outs and commanders have vowed to hunt down the warlord’s militant network in the remote northwest region known as a base for Taleban and Al-Qaeda rebels.
