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Al-Qaeda seeking Mehsud's successor: TV

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-08-10 22:37

ISLAMABAD: Al-Qaida is reorganizing its activities in northwest Pakistan and seeking to appoint a new chief of Pakistan Taliban after the claimed killing of Baitullah Mehsud, local TV channel reported Monday.

Baitullah Mehsud (R) is seen after a meeting with security forces in Sara Rogha, located in Pakistan's South Waziristan in this February 7, 2005 file photo. [Xinhua]

According to Pakistani Interior Ministry sources, Al-Qaida is reorganized in northwest Pakistan's tribal areas and is in the process of appointting a member as the new leader of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the private TV channel DAWN News reported.

Related readings:  US, Pakistan increasingly believe Mehsud dead  National security adviser: US believes Mehsud dead  Militants say Pakistan's Mehsud alive  Pakistan officials: Taliban leader Mehsud dead  Pakistan probes reports of Taliban chief's death

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik also said in an interview with BBC radio that Pakistan is worried that Al-Qaida is trying to find somebody to install as the "chief terrorist" in that area.

Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Monday said that the Taliban militants were on the run, the differences between them were widening and they would soon be eliminated.

Mehsud, chief of TTP, was reportedly killed during the United States drone missile strike Wednesday in South Waziristan tribal agency.