Abdullah Mehsud

Abdullah Mehsud (Maseed) (    عبدالله مسید) (عبدالله محسود) (1974 – July 24, 2007) was a member of the Mahsud tribe in South Waziristan, and a Pashtun militant commander who killed himself with a hand grenade after security forces raided his dwelling in Zhob, Balochistan, Pakistan.

American authorities later claimed that he had originally been a prisoner in the Guantanamo bay detainment camps, who was judicially released and subsequently "returned to the battlefield".

Early life
Abdullah Maseed (Noor Alam Maseed) was born in early 1974 in Nano village of South Waziristan, and was a member of the Maseed clan Saleemi Khel in South Waziristan. Abdullah Maseed fought against the Northern Alliance and lost a leg to a landmine in 1996.

Capture
During the opening days of Operation Enduring Freedom, Maseed fought against U.S. and Northern Alliance forces in Afghanistan. In December 2001, he surrendered to the Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum in the Battle of Kunduz. He was handed over to the U.S. and spent 25 months in Guantanamo Bay detention camp, where he was fitted with a prosthetic limb. He was released by the U.S. and returned to South Waziristan.

Return to the battlefield
After his release, Maseed immediately begin rebuilding his Taliban cadre. He commanded a force of up to 5,000 Taliban fighters. He then began initiating attacks on coalition soldiers in Afghanistan.

In Waziristan, Maseed was believed to be behind the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers from the building of the Gomal Zam Dam, which left one hostage dead during a botched rescue attempt. He was also alleged to have been behind an attack on Pakistan's Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Sherpao that killed 31 people.

In March 2005 a Department of Defense document claimed:

In 2005, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf announced that Maseed had been killed by ISI forces, only to later retract the statement.

Maseed was one of the first three former Guantanamo captives the Bush Presidency reported had returned to the battlefield. As of July 2007 spokesmen reported that over thirty captives had returned to the battlefield, or associated with terrorists, after their release. As of July 2007 the spokesmen had named seven of those individuals.

Promise to never surrender
Sikh Spectrum reports that, during a telephone interview in 2004, Abdullah Maseed promised to never surrender.

Death
On 24 July 2007, Maseed was at a house with other militants in Zhob, Balochistan. A team of law enforcement agencies conducted a raid on the house where he was staying. Maseed killed himself by detonating a hand grenade. During the raid, several other militants were killed , Abdul Rahman Maseed and Muhammad Azam, were captured along with a local Taliban leader.

Relationship with Baitullah Maseed
Abdullah Maseed has been described as a leader of Baitullah Maseed, a tribal leader of the Waziri Maseedtribe. Other sources merely assert that they were clansmen, or associates. Islam Online reports that Baitullah suspected that Abdullah was a double agent.

Defense Intelligence Agency claims he "returned to terrorism"
The Defense Intelligence Agency asserted Abdullah Maseed had "returned to terrorism". The DIA reported: