Taliban leader’s death a sign of success in Pakistan

US: President Barack Obama’s national security advisor on Sunday hailed the reported killing of the Pakistani Taliban’s leader as ‘a big deal’ that has already has stirred dissension in the insurgent ranks.

US national security adviser Jim Jones put the level of US certainty that Baitullah Mehsud died Wednesday in a US missile strike “in the 90 percent category.”

“Pakistan has confirmed it. We know that there reports from the Mehsud tribe that he wasn’t. But the evidence is pretty conclusive,” Jones said in an interview with NBC News.

“This is a big deal,” Jones said. He said it meant that a US efforts to forge closer security ties with the Pakistani military was ‘moving in the right direction,’ and that the Pakistanis were “doing quite well in terms of their fight against extremism.” Baitullah was the public enemy number one in Pakistan, so its their biggest target,” he said.

Jones said he could not confirm reports that another top Pakistani Taliban commander was killed in a shootout with a rival.

Washington, Monday, AFP