Wali-ur-Rehman Mehsud’s death still not confirmed: US State Dept

WASHINGTON: The United States Department of State Thursday said that it could not confirm the death of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) second-in-command, Wali-ur-Rehman Mehsud’s death in a drone attack in Pakistan’s tribal belt, Geo News reported.

“I cannot. We have seen those reports (in which TTP has confirmed Wali-ur-Rehman was killed in the attack), but I don’t have any new or independent confirmation from here” said Sate Dept spokesperson, Jennifer Psaki, after she was asked to confirm the TTP commander's death during a press briefing.

According to US officials, a drone attack on Wednesday killed the deputy chief of the TTP, who allegedly was involved in the 2009 suicide attack on a Central Intelligence Agency outpost in Afghanistan that killed seven Americans.

At least six people including Wali-ur-Rehman were killed in Wednesday’s drone strike, the first since May 11 general elections.

The TTP on Thursday confirmed that Wali-ur-Rehman was killed in a US drone strike. Confirming Wali's death, the TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said TTP was not interested in any peace talks with the incoming government of Pakistan.

On TTP’s announcement of suspending talks with the Pakistan government, Psaki said the United States and Pakistan would continue to have, of course, a vital shared strategic interest in moving that process forward.

She could not come up with any information on Wali-ur-Rahman’s newly named successor, Khan Said, in terms of a bounty for his head.

“I don’t have any information on that”, said she.

To a question, whether the US has any readout on special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan’s meetings in Pakistan and Afghanistan last two days, Psaki said, “Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador James Dobbins, traveled to Pakistan May 29th through 30th."

Psaki said during his first trip to the country in his new capacity, he met with Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani, Chief of Army Staff Kayani, and with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif.

He spoke by phone with President Zardari, who was in Karachi at the time, she added.

She further said that during his engagements, Ambassador Dobbins discussed a range of bilateral and regional issues, including advancing shared counterterrorism objectives, increasing economic opportunity, strengthening civilian democracy and civil society, and supporting Afghan-owned and Afghan-led – an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led reconciliation process.