Pakistani Taliban chief dodged missile, officials say

Posted: June 24, 2009 at 11:12 a.m.

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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The head of Pakistan's Taliban had joined a funeral procession targeted in a suspected U.S. missile strike, but left before the attack that killed 80 people mourning an earlier barrage on a militant training camp, intelligence officials said Wednesday.

A top Taliban aide denied Baitullah Mehsud was anywhere near the missile strike and said all but five of the dead were civilians. The intelligence officials, however, said several senior Taliban militants were killed.

Mehsud, accused of plotting suicide bombings and the assassination Tuesday of his chief rival, is the target of a looming offensive by Pakistan's military in the South Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan.

Suspected missile strikes killed several people at a purported Taliban training center early Tuesday, then another barrage rained down on a funeral procession for some of those killed in the first attack.

Two intelligence officials said Wednesday that although Mehsud had visited the village where the funeral took place, he left before the drone-fired missiles killed 80 people and wounded dozens more. The two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media, said it was unclear how long before the attack Mehsud left.

Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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