Security forces captured the Pakistani Taliban’s top spokesman in an operation near the Afghan border, intelligence officials said yesterday, dealing another blow to the militants following the reported killing of their leader earlier this month.
The seizure of Mauvi Umar follows government claims of disarray in the leadership of the Taliban over who should replace their chief, Baitullah Mehsud, who is believed to have been killed in a CIA missile strike on Aug. 5.
TRIBAL ASSISTANCE
Umar was seized in a village in the Mohmand tribal region on Monday night while he was traveling in a car with two associates to South Waziristan, a Taliban stronghold, three intelligence officials said.
Local tribal elders assisted troops in locating Umar in the village of Khawazeo, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. They said Umar’s arrest would likely be publicly announced later yesterday.
Pakistan army or government spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.
As the official spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, the umbrella organization for various regional and tribal militant movements, Umar frequently called journalists to claim responsibility for terrorist attacks in Pakistan. He was known to be close to Mehsud.
Last week he called the Associated Press to insist Mehsud was still alive and deny reports of a power struggle within the Pakistani Taliban’s disparate factions over who would succeed him.
SECOND ARREST
Umar’s capture was the second high-profile arrest of a senior Taliban figure in 24 hours.
On Monday night, police said they had arrested a militant commander and close Mehsud aide who was being treated in a private hospital in Islamabad, the capital.
Militant commander Qari Saifullah, who is reportedly linked to al-Qaeda, told police he had been wounded in a US missile strike in South Waziristan, said two police officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information. It was unclear if it was the same strike believed to have killed Mehsud.
Pakistan’s Western allies are desperate to see a crackdown on militants threatening the stability of the nuclear-armed country as well as the success of the US and NATO-led mission in neighboring Afghanistan, where violence is surging ahead of elections later this week.
Visiting US envoy Richard Holbrooke on Sunday praised recent gains against the militants, including the reported death of Mehsud and the retaking of the Swat Valley, 160km from Islamabad, from the Taliban last month.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion