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Pakistani Taliban Leader Releases New Audio

   VOA News 16 January 2010
   In  this photo taken Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009, new Pakistani Taliban chief
   Hakimullah Mehsud, left, is seen with his comrade Waliur Rehman during
   his  meeting  with  media in Sararogha of South Waziristan tribal area
   along the Afghanistan border.

Photo: AP

   Pakistani  Taliban  chief  Hakimullah  Mehsud,  left, is seen with his
   comrade  Waliur  Rehman  during his meeting with media in Sararogha of
   South  Waziristan  tribal  area along the Afghanistan border (Oct 2009
   file)

   Pakistani   Taliban  leader  Hakimullah  Mehsud  issued  a  new  audio
   recording  Saturday  to  prove  he  survived  a suspected U.S. missile
   strike earlier in the week.
   On  the  recording, Mehsud said he was not wounded and made references
   to Thursday's drone attack in the South Waziristan tribal region.
   Pakistan's  Taliban had released an audio tape of Mehsud on Friday but
   the tape did not mention a date.
   Earlier  Saturday, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and
   Pakistan  said he did not know whether Mehsud had survived the attack,
   but that he had heard "every conceivable version" of what happened.
   Holbrooke also said that if Mehsud is still alive he is, in his words,
   "one of the worst people on earth," calling him absolutely vicious.
   Pakistani  intelligence  sources  had  said  Mehsud was wounded in the
   missile strike that killed at least 12 suspected militants.
   On  Friday,  officials say two drone strikes killed at least 11 people
   in  North  Waziristan,  near the Afghan border.  The missiles targeted
   suspected militant compounds.
   The  United  States  has  increased its attacks using pilotless drones
   since  a  suicide  bomber  killed  seven  U.S.  intelligence agents in
   eastern Afghanistan last month.

   Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.

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