Airstrike in Kabul reported to kill TTP leader Noor Wali Mehsud

# Airstrike in Kabul reported to kill TTP leader Noor Wali Mehsud

*Event date: 2025-10-09*

Noor Wali Mehsud, the leader of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, was reportedly killed in an airstrike in Kabul on Thursday night, according to the Amu report in the packet. The same report says multiple sources confirmed the death, but it also makes clear that details about the attack remain incomplete.

The strike reportedly targeted a compound in Kabul, though the exact location remains unclear. Residents reported loud explosions in parts of the city and said they believed the blasts were airstrikes. Two local residents told the outlet the strikes happened near Abdulhaq Square in downtown Kabul, but the source stresses that the precise location has not been confirmed.

That uncertainty is important. The Taliban’s chief spokesman confirmed that attacks had taken place and said an investigation had started, but the packet does not identify who carried out the strike. For that reason, the verified story is not about attribution. It is about a reported strike, a reported death and the open question of responsibility.

Mehsud was one of Pakistan’s most wanted militant figures. The packet says he was born in South Waziristan in 1978 and had led the TTP since 2018, becoming the group’s fourth leader after the death of Mullah Fazlullah. It also says he had spent years moving through the militant network, including overseeing TTP operations in Karachi by 2013, where the group used extortion and kidnappings to finance activities across Pakistan.

The source further says Mehsud was believed to have lived between Pakistan and Afghanistan and held Pakistani citizenship. Those details help explain why his reported death in Kabul would matter well beyond one city. A leader with cross-border ties and a long record inside the TTP is not just a symbolic figure; he is a key part of the group’s command structure.

The timing of the strike adds another layer. The report says it came while Taliban acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi was visiting India for high-level talks on bilateral relations and regional security, his first official visit since the Taliban took power in 2021. That does not prove the strike was linked to the visit, but it places the event inside a tense regional setting.

The same source also notes that India and Pakistan have both raised concerns about militant activity in Afghanistan, with Islamabad repeatedly accusing the Taliban of allowing TTP fighters to use Afghan territory for attacks across the border. The Taliban deny that accusation. Again, those are background disputes in the packet, not conclusions that the article can draw from the strike itself.

The verified reporting therefore supports a narrow but important account: an airstrike struck a Kabul compound, Noor Wali Mehsud was reported killed, the Taliban acknowledged attacks and began an investigation, and the question of who carried out the operation remains unresolved.

The lack of firm attribution is what makes the report careful, not weak. In conflict reporting, a confirmed explosion and a confirmed death can be news even when the perpetrator remains disputed. This case fits that pattern: the strike itself is reported, the target is named, and the responsible party is not yet established.