Pakistani Taliban chief dodged missile

updated 5:45 p.m. ET June 24, 2009

ISLAMABAD - The head of Pakistan's Taliban had joined a funeral procession targeted in a suspected U.S. missile strike, but left before the attack that killed 80 people mourning those struck down by an earlier barrage on a militant training camp, intelligence officials said Wednesday.

A top Taliban aide denied Baitullah Mehsud was anywhere near the missile strike — among the deadliest in an ongoing campaign — and said all but five of the dead were civilians. The intelligence officials, however, said several senior Taliban militants were killed.

Mehsud, accused of plotting suicide bombings and the assassination Tuesday of his chief rival, is the target of a looming offensive by Pakistan's military in the South Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan.

Suspected missile strikes killed several people at a purported Taliban training center early Tuesday, then another barrage rained down on a funeral procession for some of those killed in the first attack.

Two intelligence officials said Wednesday that although Mehsud had visited the village where the funeral took place, he left before the drone-fired missiles killed 80 people and wounded dozens more. The two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media, said it was unclear how long before the attack Mehsud left.

Intelligence officials had said Tuesday that militants lost contact with Mehsud for a while. Media reports suggested he had a very close call.

Pakistan's airstrikes draw criticism
But Qari Hussain, a close associate of Mehsud, denied those reports.

"Baitullah Mehsud was at a secret place at the time of the American missile attack, and the attack killed only five of our colleagues, and the remaining 45 slain men were villagers," he told The Associated Press.

Dozens of airstrikes have been carried out in the tribal regions over the last year, drawing criticism from Pakistan's leaders that they jeopardize the military operation by firing up an already raging anti-Americanism.

Meanwhile, Islamabad police chief Kalim Imam said Wednesday that police are holding 25 suspects on suspicion they were planning acts of terrorism or were behind bomb attacks across the country.

"We got hold of them through good intelligence," Imam told reporters.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said two of them were arrested three days ago on suspicion they wanted to attack Parliament and an elite intelligence agency.

Two senior security officials said other potential targets of the 25 included the office of Pakistan's main spy agency and some embassies. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to media.

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