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Faqir Mohammed, the leader of the Taliban in Bajaur and the deputy leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. Image courtesy of AfPax Insider. |
A top Taliban leader has refuted reports from Pakistan’s Interior Minister that he was killed during airstrikes in the Mohmand tribal agency in the northwest.
Faqir Mohammed, the leader of the Taliban in the Bajaur tribal agency, contacted a reporter to deny reports of his death.
“I’m fine. It’s just propaganda,” Faqir said in a telephone conversation to a Reuters reporter who has spoken to him before and recognized his voice.
“I was in Bajaur, not Mohmand that day,” Faqir said. “None of our commanders were killed in the attack. We lost some fighters and women.”
Rehman Malik, Pakistan’s Interior Minister, insisted that Faqir was killed in a helicopter strike in Mohmand on March 5 that killed that also killed Qari Zia Rahman, Mohammed Fateh, and more than 30 Taliban fighters.
Rahman is an al Qaeda leader who operates in Pakistan’s Bajaur tribal agency as well as in Afghanistan’s Nuristan and Kunar provinces. Fateh is a wanted Swat Taliban commander. The fates of Rahman and Fateh are not known, but Faqir did deny that any senior commanders were killed.
Malik did not have evidence of the deaths of Faqir or Rahman , and quickly backtracked on his definitive claims that they had been killed. Malik did insist that Fateh was killed, however, and that witnesses saw his body pulled from the rubble after an attack.
A week ago, the Pakistani military claimed that it defeated the Taliban in Bajaur after it took over a series of bunkers and command centers in the town of Damadola in the tribal agency.
5 Comments
THese roaches are resilient.
Is it just my imagination, or does Faqir Mohammad look a lot like Eli Wallach in “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”? Wallach played “the Ugly”.
I found a couple images here:
http://my-autographs.de/wallach.htm
Oh well. It’s not like I expected the Pakistanis to be right about something. He’s more likely to end up on the explosive end of a CIA drone strike.
At least Pgov and PA got some fighters and women. Wish they’d be more cautious though, or maybe they know they’re most likely wrong or lying…
QZR’s information is still unsubstantiated, is it not? There is a significant piece from a non-US media outlet that claims he is the main commander in the Konar/Nuristan region but the claim that he’s among Bin Laden’s top Taliban lieutenants is probably invalid.