March 11, 2010

Report: Top Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur among the 14+ dead in drone strike

Would be a huge kill if confirmed....it was his compound that was the target of yesterday's drone swarm attack.

Sify

At least 14 suspected Taliban insurgents, including top extremist commander, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, were reportedly killed in a couple of US drone attacks in North Waziristan.

Acccording to sources, in the first attack, an unmanned aircraft targeted a vehicle firing four missiles in Macha Madakhel at Dada Khel tehsil, killing six terrorists.

Another vehicle, which was on its way to help the victims of the first attack, was also targeted killing eight more militants, The Daily Times reports.

An intelligence official confirmed the missile hits, but failed to substantiate reports regarding the death of Bahadur

Reports are drones flew over the area for hours until nightfall.

For those not familiar with Bahadur Jamestown has his background.

Perhaps no one has greater stature or importance in the Pakistani Taliban leadership than Hafiz Gul Bahadur, supreme commander of the North Waziristani Taliban. A direct descendant of Mirza Ali Khan, a legendary Waziristani freedom fighter who fought against the British Indian government and later against the newly established Pakistani State, Bahadur is known for hosting foreign militants, mainly al-Qaeda and other Arab groups, as well as Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani of the cross-border Haqqani network.

Hafiz Gul Bahadur is 48 years old and belongs to the Madda Khel clan of the Uthmanzai Wazir. He is a resident of Lwara, a region bordering Afghanistan and is reported to have received his religious education from a Deobandi madrassa (seminary) in Multan (The Post [Lahore], August 19). Bahadur subscribes to the Deobandi Islamic revivalist ideology and maintains a political affiliation with the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F), a Deobandi political party. Bahadur fought in Afghanistan during the anti-Soviet jihad of the 1980s and again during Taliban rule.
Huge kill if confirmed.

By Matt Damon at 04:00 AM | |