Taliban pick leader amid Mehsud rumors

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- The Pakistani Taliban appointed Malik Noor Jamal, or Mullah Toofan, as their caretaker leader following reports chief Hakimullah Mehsud is dead.

U.S. aircraft launched a strike Jan. 14 on Taliban hideouts near the border between North and South Waziristan in an operation targeting Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban. His cousin and former leader, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in an August airstrike by the U.S. military.

As many as 10 Taliban were killed in the attack. Local television reports said Mehsud was among those injured when a missile struck a compound in Shatkoi village. January reports on the strike said Mehsud was being treated for head injuries, though his wounds were not considered life threatening at the time.

Council leaders in the Pakistani Taliban announced they appointed Mullah Toofan as the head of the group as Mehsud rumors circulate, Pakistan's Samaa news agency reports.

The names Qari Hussain and Wali-ur-Rehman were mentioned as possible successors, Samaa said, though some reports suggested Rehman was killed in the January airstrike strike as well.

U.S. intelligence officials told The Long War Journal, a Web site monitoring military affairs in Central Asia, there was no reliable information to suggest he was dead, though The New York Times and The Washington Post expressed near certainty that the Taliban leader was killed.

Mehsud was last heard from in an audio tape Jan. 16.