Rifts within the Taliban

Syed Saleem Shahzad of Asia Times reports some striking news in the development of the Taliban insurgency, which could point to increasing internal rifts. He cites anonymous Taliban sources who claim that Taliban chief Mullah Omar has fired Baitullah Mehsud, the alleged mastermind of the Bhutto assassination who had been in charge of stepping up attacks against the Pakistani state.

Now, apparently, Omar is trying to return the focus of the insurgency back to Afghanistan, to fight NATO forces and the nascent Afghan state. The divide apparently came over a difference in opinion about who to focus attacks on. “Mehsud was expected to provide valuable support to the Taliban in Afghanistan, but instead he directed all his fighters against Pakistani security forces,” writes Shahzad.

This shift in Taliban strategy was evident, Shahzad says, with the recent attack in Pakistan’s Balochistan province that destroyed oil tankers headed to NATO’s Kandahar airfield.