ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani Taliban on Monday confirmed the death of its deputy chief, Khan Said Sajna, in a drone strike on Feb. 8.
“The central leadership of Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP) Pakistan formally confirms the death of deputy chief Khan Said alias Khalid Mehsud in a US drone strike,” TTP spokesman Mohammed Khorasani said in a statement obtained by Arab News.
Sajna was a close confidant of TTP founder Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a US drone strike in 2009. Sajna headed Taliban militants belonging to the Mehsud tribe.
Mufti Noorwali Mehsud has been appointed the new head of the Mehsud unit, Khorasani said.
Mehsud has served in several key positions since the launch of the TTP in 2007, and his book on the organization was published online last month.
Sajna’s death is considered a serious setback for the TTP, which has already been under mounting pressure from US drone attacks and internal divisions.
Several senior Taliban militants have been killed in Afghanistan in recent years, including Khalifa Umar Mansour, Hafiz Saeed Khan, Qari Mohammed Yasin and Raees Khan.
Pakistani Taliban confirms death of deputy chief in drone strike
Pakistani Taliban confirms death of deputy chief in drone strike
California joins UN health network following US departure from WHO
- California Governor Gavin Newsom decried the United States’ move on Friday, calling it a “reckless decision” that will hurt many people
CALIFORNIA: California said on Friday it will become the first US state to join the World Health Organization’s global outbreak response network following the Trump administration’s decision to pull Washington out of the WHO.
The network, comprised of more than 360 technical institutions, responds to public health events with the deployment of staff and resources to affected countries. It has tackled major public health events, including COVID-19. The state’s decision to join the network comes more than a year after US President Donald Trump gave notice that Washington would depart from the WHO. On Thursday, it officially withdrew from the agency, saying its decision reflected failures in the UN health agency’s management of the pandemic.
California Governor Gavin Newsom decried the United States’ move on Friday, calling it a “reckless decision” that will hurt many people.
“California will not bear witness to the chaos this decision will bring,” Newsom said in a statement. “We will continue to foster partnerships across the globe and remain at the forefront of public health preparedness, including through our membership as the only state in WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network.”
The governor’s office said he met with the WHO’s Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week, where they discussed collaborating to detect and respond to emerging public health threats.
The WHO did not immediately respond when reached for comment.
