November 28, 2008	Friday	Ziqa'ad 29, 1429

WANA, Nov 27: Five suspected militants were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside landmine in the Tiarza area here on Thursday evening.

Local people said the militants belonging to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan of Baituallah Mehsud were travelling in the vehicle that hit a roadside landmine in Tiarza, around 25km north of here.

Some private television channels reported that it was an air strike by a US drone, but the local people contradicted these reports saying no plane was around when the incident took place.

Names of the killed militants could not be ascertained.

The local people suspect that relations between militants belonging to the groups of Baitullah Mehsud and former militant commander late Abdullah Mehsud have soured during the last couple of days and the latter might be behind this incident.

Earlier, a pamphlet carrying a message purportedly written by Qari Zainuddin Mehsud, chief of the late Abdullah Mehsud group, was distributed here. The pamphlet carried certain charges against Baitullah Mehsud, blaming him for the killing of ‘innocent’ militant commanders and tribal elders.

The pamphlet states that activities of Baitullah Mehsud were aimed at defaming Islam and these were never part of jihad. The pamphlet also denounced suicide bombings, accusing Baitullah Mehsud of engineering these bombings.