(Previous Incident Code: Ob329 )

US drones reportedly killed TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud in a strike on his car or house a few miles from Miranshah. Between three and six others also died.

Intelligence officials told Seattle Times that a suspected U.S. drone strike killed at least at least three people when two missiles hit a house in the village of Dande Derpa Khel near the main town of Miran Shah. Naharnet claimed the U.S. drone struck “a rebel compound” and killed at least four militants. While The News reported on the same death toll, it stated that the drone fired missiles at a residential compound and added that “locals were trying to retrieve dead and injured from the debris of the house. Identities of the dead and injured were yet to be known.”

According to Tribune and Frontier Post, five people were killed. The Frontier Post reported that four missiles were fired on what it also described to be a compound.

GEO TV spoke of six people who were killed in the attack and Dawn added that two others were injured.

An intelligence source told Reuters: “Among the dead, who are in large numbers, are Hakimullah’s personal bodyguard Tariq Mehsud and his driver Abdullah Mehsud, two of his closest people.” According to an Islamabad-based think tank the strike also killed: Wali Muhammed, Hakimullah’s uncle and a Taliban commander; Wali Badsha, a bodyguard; and Sameedullah Mehsud and Saheel Mehsud, both Taliban militants.

Rumours of Hakimullah’s death swirled before senior militant sources, and unnamed Pakistani and US officials confirmed the reports. The Taliban published a picture of Hakimullah taken before he was buried in secret. The TTP ruling council selected a new leader a week after Hakimullah’s death. Shahidullah Shahid, a caretaker leader for the interim, announced the leader of the Swat Taliban Mullah Fazlullah was the groups new “emir”. Fazlullah was driven from Swat in a bloody offensive by the Pakistan Army in 2009 and has been conducting his affairs from Afghanistan. He ordered the shooting Pakistani school girl and activist Malala Yousafzai. When making the announcement, Shahid said Faazlullah was “already against negotiations”, confirming any peace talks with the government were off. The Taliban promised retribution would follow the death.

Hakimullah assumed command of the TTP in August 2009 following the death of Baitullah Mehsud. He had been reported killed at least three times before. US intelligence officials initially told the Long War Journal they could not confirm if he had been killed in the strike. Early reports said drones targeted Mehsud in an attack on his house, his car, or as he left a mosque and walked to his car. It subsequently emerged he was killed as he returned to his house after a meeting with Taliban commanders.

Senators and cabinet ministers criticised the strike. And the US ambassador was called in to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. PTI, the ruling party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said it would close the province’s borders to Nato supply convoys by November 20 unless drone strikes stopped. The New York Times pointed out a slight paradox in this threat: most of the convoys are leaving Afghanistan as Nato draws down its forces ahead of the 2014 withdrawal. Blocking the supply routes would slow down the withdrawal of US and allied troops.US Representative Mike Rogers defended the strike, saying “this was a bad guy”. He added: “There’s some information recently that concerned us about the safety of our troops. I feel a little better for our troops today than I did before this event happened.” Secretary of State John Kerry would not comment on the strike. But he said of Mehsud: “This is a man who absolutely is known to have targeted and killed many Americans, many Afghans and many Pakistanis. A huge number of Pakistanis have died at the hands of Mehsud and his terrorist organisation.”