An unmanned US drone in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan dropped two missiles on the house of a relative of Pakistan Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud 5 August, killing several people, including the Taliban chief’s second wife. Unconfirmed reports from Pakistan say that an unidentified person killed may have been Mehsud himself.
Mehsud is widely suspected of being behind the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was shot and killed at a political rally in December 2007.
Pakistani armed forces have been gearing up for battle with Baitullah Mehsud’s insurgent forces in South Waziristan in the Federally Adminsitered Tribal Areas (FATA), after having cleared neighbouring Swat and Duner districts, in the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), of Mehsud’s forces. BBC, CNN
