Pakistani Taliban leader believed killed in U.S. drone strike

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Pakistani Taliban’s second-in-command, Waliur Rehman, was believed to be killed in a suspected U.S. drone missile strike in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, along with five other Taliban militants, Pakistani security sources said.

If confirmed, Rehman’s death would deal a heavy blow to the Pakistani militant group, which has killed thousands of Pakistanis and at times has eyed the U.S. as a target.

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The U.S. government had put a $5-million bounty on Rehman. Officials in Washington believe that Rehman and the Taliban’s leader, Hakimullah Mahsud, were involved in a suicide bomb blast at a U.S. installation in Afghanistan that killed seven CIA officers and a Jordanian colleague in December 2009. The bombing was later dramatized in the 2012 film “Zero Dark Thirty.”

[Updated 9:55 a.m. May 29: The drone strike would be the first since President Obama laid out new restrictions on the program in a speech last Thursday.]

Wednesday’s attack occurred in North Waziristan, a tribal region along the Afghan border that for years has served as a haven for a wide array of Islamist militant organizations. They include the Pakistani Taliban, Al Qaeda, and the Haqqani network, an Afghan Taliban wing responsible for some of the deadliest attacks on U.S. and Afghan forces in Kabul and eastern Afghanistan.

Rehman was visiting a tribesman’s compound in the town of Miram Shah when four drone missiles struck the compound about 3 a.m., according to local security and tribal sources. Rehman and the five other militants killed were sleeping in a guest house at the compound when the missiles hit, the security sources said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak on such matters.

“We are 90% sure that Waliur Rehman, along with other senior commanders, have been killed in the attack, said a Pakistani security source.

A Pakistani Taliban spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, said he could not confirm Rehman’s death.

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Staff writer Rodriguez reported from Islamabad and special correspondent Ali from Peshawar, Pakistan.