Pakistan’s Taliban fight each other

Pakistan’s Taliban fight each other
Monday, July 2nd, 2007

By Behroz Khan and David Montero, Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor Mon Jul 2, 4:00 AM ET

TANK and ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - It’s not only the Pakistani military and the occasional US Predator drone that has Pakistan-based Taliban looking over their shoulders these days. As a sharp internal rift emerges over attacks on civilians, some are now turning their guns on each other.

Last month, Qari Hussain Ahmad, a militant leader, launched a series of violent attacks throughout Pakistan’s tribal belt that left many innocent civilians dead. On June 1, in retaliation, reigning Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud captured 17 of Mr. Ahmad’s men and threatened to kill them.

The incident highlights how the Taliban’s ideological frontiers have changed as Pakistani militants have regrouped and realigned their allegiances, leading to internecine violence throughout the tribal belt.

The Taliban’s central leadership in Pakistan is weakening, experts say, and some factions have proven themselves all too willing to dispense with the ancient Pashtun codes of mercy and restraint – the kind that saw guests, women, and children as off-limits in war.

Even Mullah Omar, the spiritual founder of the original Taliban movement, lamented this ruthless shift in a letter to field commanders last December, imploring them to do more to avoid civilian deaths.

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