Pakistan Reviews US Ties After Taliban Death

Pakistan is reviewing its relationship with the United States following the killing of the Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud in a US drone strike.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to chair a meeting of his top security advisers on Monday to discuss the next steps.

Mehsud, who had a $5m (£3.1m) US bounty on his head, was killed on Friday in the northwestern Pakistani militant stronghold of North Waziristan, near the Afghan border.

Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar responded to the killing by accusing the US of "scuttling" attempts to get the Taliban to take part in peace talks.

He said "every aspect" of co-operation with Washington would be reviewed in the wake of the attack.

"The murder of Hakimullah is the murder of all efforts at peace. Americans said they support our efforts at peace. Is this support?"

The US State Department has not confirmed the killing, but a spokesman said: "The United States and Pakistan continue to have a vital, shared strategic interest in ending extremist violence so as to build a more prosperous, stable and peaceful region."

Some politicians have demanded that US military supply lines into Afghanistan be blocked in response to the attack.

Pakistan is the main route for supplies for US troops in the landlocked country, for everything from food and drinking water to fuel.

The closure of the routes could be a serious disruption as US and other Western forces prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of next year.

Relations between the US and Pakistan have been seriously strained several times over recent years, including in 2011, when US forces killed Osama bin Laden in a raid that Pakistan said violated its sovereignty.

On Saturday, several militant commanders said 38-year-old Khan Said, who is also known as Sajna, had been chosen as the new leader of the Pakistani Taliban.

But Shahidullah Shahid, the main spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), said a permanent replacement had not been chosen yet.

"Asmatullah Shaheen Bhittani, the head of the supreme shura, has has been appointed as temporary head of the TTP," Mr Shahid told the AFP news agency, adding that prayers for Mehsud were still going on.

Alongside Said and Bhittani, names suggested as a permanent leader include Mullah Fazlullah, the commander from the Swat Valley, whose men shot and wounded schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai last year.

Said is seen as a relative moderate and if he becomes leader, talks with the government might eventually get going, said Imtiaz Gul, the head of the Islamabad-based Centre for Research and Security Studies think-tank.

But if Fazlullah was chosen, there would be little hope of compromise, he warned.