Country Reports on Terrorism 2013 - Foreign Terrorist Organizations: Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan

aka Pakistani Taliban; Tehreek-e-Taliban; Tehrik-e-Taliban; Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan; Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan; TTP

Description: Designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on September 1, 2010, Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is a Pakistan-based terrorist organization formed in 2007 in opposition to Pakistani military efforts in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Previously disparate militant tribes agreed to cooperate and eventually coalesced into TTP under the leadership of now deceased leader Baitullah Mehsud. TTP was led by Hakimullah Mehsudfrom August 2009 until his death in November 2013. Following Hakimullah Mehsud's death, TTP has been led by Mullah Fazlullah, formerly the leader of TTP's chapter in the Swat area of Pakistan.

TTP's goals include waging a terrorist campaign against the Pakistani military and state, as well as against NATO forces in Afghanistan, and overthrowing the Government of Pakistan. TTP uses the tribal belt along the Afghan-Pakistani border to train and deploy its operatives, and the group has ties to al-Qa'ida (AQ). TTP draws ideological guidance from AQ, while AQ relies on TTP for safe haven in the Pashtun areas along the Afghan-Pakistani border. This arrangement gives TTP access to both AQ's global terrorist network and the operational experience of its members.

Activities: TTP has carried out and claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist acts against Pakistani and U.S. interests, including a December 2009 suicide attack on a U.S. military base in Khowst, Afghanistan, which killed seven U.S. citizens; and an April 2010 suicide bombing against the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan, which killed six Pakistani citizens. TTP is suspected of involvement in the 2007 assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. TTP directed and facilitated the failed attempt by Faisal Shahzad to detonate an explosive device in New York City's Times Square on May 1, 2010.

Throughout 2011 and 2012, TTP carried out attacks against the Government of Pakistan and civilian targets, as well as against U.S. targets in Pakistan. Attacks in 2011 targeted civilians, Pakistani government and military targets, and an American consulate convoy in a series of suicide bombings and attacks that killed nearly 90 people. In 2012, TTP killed over 12 people in a March attack against a mosque; 24 in a suicide bombing against a police checkpoint in May; five soldiers in an August attack against a Pakistani Air Force base; and 22 Shia Muslims after stopping their busses in August.

TTP continued targeting both civilian and government targets in 2013. In May, two TTP bombings targeted political parties in Karachi, Pakistan, killing three and wounding 34 others in the run-up to elections. Also in May, TTP claimed responsibility for a bombing that killed 11 members of a newly-created elite police force and wounded 20 others outside Quetta, Pakistan. In September, a TTP suicide bomber struck outside a church in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 81 and wounding approximately 140. In October, a Pakistani government minister and nine other civilians were killed when a suicide bomber, believed to be a member of a local branch of the TTP in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, struck outside the official's home during the Eid al-Adha holiday. In November, twin bomb attacks targeting a Shia neighborhood of Karachi, Pakistan killed six people and wounded 35 others.

Strength: Several thousand.

Location/Area of Operation: Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Pakistan

Funding and External Aid: TTP is believed to raise most of its funds through kidnapping ransoms and operations that target Afghanistan-bound military transport trucks for robbery. Such operations allow TTP to steal military equipment, which it sells in Afghan and Pakistani markets.