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Narrow escape for Mehsud

ISLAMABAD: While Beithullah Mehsud is said to have narrowly escaped being killed in a U.S. drone strike in South Waziristan on Tuesday, another top militant and an aide of the Taliban leader may not have been so fortunate, according to a media report.

Dawn newspaper reported on Thursday that the missile strike may have killed Qari Hussain, who was known as the trainer-in-chief of suicide bombers. The missile strike killed nearly 80 people, many of them said to be militants. They were attending the funeral of Khoz Wali, a prominent Afghan militant killed in an earlier missile strike in South Waziristan on the same day. The second strike was aimed at the funeral at which 5,000 people were reportedly present. Beithullah Mehsud, leader of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, against whom the Pakistani security forces are preparing for an operation, was also reported to be present, but left before the strike, the report said.

There was information that an Afghan Taliban leader, Sangeen Zadran, was also presentl. He had crossed over for the funeral from the Afghan province of Paktika, but the newspaper said he too had left before the strike.

PTI reports: With his troops waiting for the nod to storm the Taliban strongholds in South Waziristan, Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani on Thursday visited the restive tribal region and said that the planned offensive was aimed “to re-establish the writ of the state”. A military statement said the General spent the day in the Federally Administered Tribal Area on the Afghan border ..

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