Without actually confirming the death of the Pakistani Taliban’s No 2 leader Waliur Rehman in Wednesday morning’s drone strike in North Waziristan, the United States sees his widely-reported death as a big blow to the notorious militant outfit.
“If those reports were true, or prove to be true, it’s worth noting that his demise would deprive the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, of its second-in-command and chief military strategist,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
Rehman has participated in cross-border attacks in Afghanistan against US and NATO personnel and horrific attacks against Pakistani civilians and soldiers, Carney said, noting that the man has been wanted in connection with the murder of seven American citizens at a forward operating base in Afghanistan in December, 2009.
“So while I am not in a position to confirm the reports of his death, it’s important to note who this individual is,” Carney said. The State Department had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Rehman’s capture. The department has described him as the TTP’s chief military strategist who led several attacks against US, NATO and Pakistani forces on either side of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, besides recruiting new fighters to join the Taliban ranks.
Pakistani security officials had been quoted in media reports on Wednesday as saying that the US drone strike killed seven people, including Rehman.
It was the first American strike in the region since the May 11 general election in which the use of drones had emerged as a major issue, with both Pakistani Muslim league-N leader Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf party leader Imran Khan strongly opposing the strikes. While Sharif had held that the drones were “a violation of our sovereignty”, Khan had even suggested that Pakistani forces should shoot them down.
The US action that came close on the heels of President Obama’s announcement last week that the drone strikes would be limited to targets posing a “continuing and imminent threat to the American people” prompted Khan to accuse Obama of going back on his word.
While declining to go into details of the US’s operational strategy on use of drones, Carney told reporters that Obama’s address at the National Defence University last week “laid out the legal and policy standards that guide our actions at great length, against whom and under what circumstances we take direct action”.
“Those standards are now there for the American public and the world to see. That does not mean that we would be able to discuss the details of every counterterrorism operation, but it does mean that there are standards in place that are public and available for every American to review,” Carney said.
“To the extent that a question like this would be asking about our policy generally, I would refer you to the President’s speech in which he said that in the Afghan war theatre we must support our troops until the transition is complete at the end of 2014,” Carney said.