4 Threat Matrix: Hakeemullah alive?

Written by Bill Roggio on February 3, 2010 10:28 PM to 4 Threat Matrix

Available online at: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2010/02/hakeemullah_alive.php

Hakeemullah Mehsud in a US Humvee looted from a NATO supply column in Khyber.

First Hakeemullah was dead, US and Pakistani officials said. Now he's alive, an anonymous Pakistani intelligence official told Dawn:

A senior government functionary has told DawnNews on condition of anonymity that Hakeemullah Mehsud may have survived a drone strike.

The official also maintained that another Taliban leader, Qari Hussain, may also be alive.

The government has not officially confirmed the speculations about his death.

The rumor mill from Pakistan is in full gear. One report even claimed that Qari Hussain Mehsud, the master trainer of suicide bombers, and Waliur Rehman Mehsud, the leader of the Taliban in South Waziristan, are also dead. The report on Qari Hussain is flat out odd as he spoke to a Pakistani television station on Sunday to deny Hakeemullah is dead. Perhaps Osama bin Laden, Elvis, and the Easter Bunny were also killed in the same strike....

The Taliban have maintained that Hakeemullah is alive, but his spokesman said that Hakeemullah will not release a tape after each and every report of his death. But Hakeemullah, who cannot be accused of being media shy, hasn't been seen or heard from since his "I'm alive" audiotape made on Jan. 16, two days after a US airstrike targeted him and reports indicated he was dead.

As I've noted, reports of Hakeemullah's death are premature and we won't know either way until the Taliban want us to know. At this stage, everything else is speculation.