DTN News: Pakistan TODAY February 9, 2010 ~ Taliban Confirm Hakeemullah's Death

DTN News: Pakistan TODAY February 9, 2010 ~ Taliban Confirm Hakeemullah's Death *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) KARACHI, Pakistan - February 9, 2010: The Taliban based in Orakzai Agency confirmed on Tuesday that Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chief Hakeemullah Mehsud is dead. Former Taliban chief Hakeemullah Mehsud sits with his commander Wali-ur Rehman. However, Alam Tariq the offiicial Taliban spokesman has not yet made a statement. Sources said that Maulvi Noor Jamal has been nominated as Mehsud's succesor. Government officials too have confirmed his death and have said that he was killed in a Shaktoi drone strike last month. American and Pakistani officials had been saying Mehsud was dead since the past few weeks.

Police say they have arrested six suspected Taliban militants, who were allegedly on their way to attack U.S. tourists at a five-star hotel in Pakistan's cultural capital with a suicide vest and hand grenades.

A Pakistani police officer stands with alleged militants, who stand hooded in police custody on Monday, Feb. 8, 2010, in Lahore, Pakistan.

Police display explosives and drugs confiscated from six arrested Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan members during a news conference in Lahore February 8, 2010. Police arrested the six, which includes a would-be suicide bomber, from Shahdara area in Lahore on Monday, Pakistan's media newspaper reported.