Baitullah Mehsud replaces Osama as biggest threat to West

Friday February 08, 2008 (0910 PST)

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LONDON: Baitullah Mehsud has replaced Osama bin Laden as the West’s deadliest threat and public enemy number one.

Mahsud who is suspected of masterminding the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, was the most significant non-state threat to global security to have emerged in the past year, said Nigel Inkster, former deputy chief of the British Intelligence Service, MI6, speaking at the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

He said international terrorism remained a growth industry and the new generation of the Taliban had earned the dubious honour of enabling it to rise even faster than the earlier one. He revealed that neo-Taliban under the leadership of Mehsud were also suspected of being involved in the terrorist plots in Britain and Spain.

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