Taliban commander killed in Pakistan raid

Washington Post:

A top Taliban commander who had became one of Pakistan's most wanted men since being released from U.S. custody in 2004 died Tuesday as security forces raided his hide-out, officials here said.

Abdullah Mehsud had earned a fearsome reputation by orchestrating brazen attacks and kidnappings, and was regarded as one of the masterminds of an insurgency that has spread from Afghanistan into Pakistan and grown more intense in recent weeks.

Pakistani officials said Mehsud blew himself up with a grenade early Tuesday morning rather than surrender as security forces closed in on his hideout in Zhob, a town in Baluchistan province that lies only 30 miles from the Afghan border. The town also sits near Waziristan, a tribal area where the Pakistani military has been engaged in intense clashes with extremist fighters.

The claim of suicide could not be independently confirmed.

...

Mehsud, who was believed to be 31, was captured by U.S. troops in Afghanistan in late 2001, after the United States launched an invasion to topple the Taliban regime. The prisoner spent 25 months in the American detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But he apparently concealed his identity from his captors, and was released in March 2004. Mehsud later bragged that he had convinced Americans at Guantanamo that he was Afghan, not Pakistani. (Emphasis added.)

Almost as soon as he was freed, the one-legged fighter -- he lost his other leg to a landmine -- resumed waging war, Pakistani officials say. The government of Pakistan placed an $84,000 bounty on his head after his followers kidnapped two Chinese engineers in October 2004. One of the engineers survived, while the other died during the rescue operation.

...

Those who want to close Gitmo and release the inmates would make us all suffer the consequences of their idiocy by releasing more such enemy combatants to kill us and our allies. The man should have been kept in custody until the end of the conflict.

It is interesting that based on his earlier success at fooling his captors that he would commit suicide rather than be captured again. The world is certainly better off without him and he is joining a growing list of dead Taliban commanders. The new replacements do not appear to be any smarter than the dead ones.

Bill Roggio:

...

... Abdullah’s brothers, Abdul Rahman Mehsud and Muhammad Azam, were captured along with a local Taliban leader...

...

He has more on the significance of the raid to the prospects for the Taliban in the area.

Here is Gateway Pundit's take on the take down. He also has some pixs of the former leader.