<p>With marble floors, lush green lawns and a towering minaret, the USD 120,000 farm where feared Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud died in a US drone strike was no grubby mountain cave.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Mehsud spent his days skipping around Pakistan's rugged tribal areas to avoid the attentions of US drones. But his family, including two wives, had the use of an eight-roomed farmhouse set amid lawns and orchards growing apples, oranges, grapes and pomegranates.<br /><br />As well as the single-storey house, the compound in Dandey Darpakhel village, five kilometres north of Miranshah, was adorned with a tall minaret -- purely for decorative purposes.<br /><br />Militant sources said the property in the North Waziristan tribal area was bought for Mehsud nearly a year ago for USD 120,000 -- a huge sum by Pakistani standards -- by close aide Latif Mehsud, who was captured by the US in Afghanistan last month.<br /><br />An AFP journalist visited the property several times when the previous owner, a wealthy landlord, lived there.<br /><br />With the Pakistan army headquarters for restive North Waziristan just a kilometre away, locals thought of Mehsud's compound as the "safest" place in a dangerous area.<br /><br />Its proximity to a major military base recalls the hideout of Osama bin Laden in the town of Abbottabad, on the doorstep of Pakistan's elite military academy.<br /><br />"I saw a convoy of vehicles two or three times in this street but I never thought Hakimullah would have been living here. It was the safest place for us before this strike," local shopkeeper Akhter Khan told AFP.<br /><br />This illusion of safety was shattered on Friday when a US drone fired at least two missiles at Mehsud's vehicle as it stood at the compound gate waiting to enter, killing the Pakistani Taliban chief and four cadres.<br /><br />The area around Dandey Darpakhel is known as a hub for the Haqqani network, a militant faction blamed for some of the most high-profile attacks in Afghanistan in recent years.<br /><br />Many left the area during the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan, coming back after the US-led invasion following the 9/11 attacks.<br /><br />Samiullah Wazir, a shopkeeper in the area, told AFP he would regularly see a convoy of four or five SUVs with blacked-out windows leave the compound early in the morning and return after sunset.<br /><br />"We thought that somebody very important must be living in this house," Wazir said.<br /><br />"One day, I saw a man wearing a white shawl entering the house and I thought he looked like Hakimullah, but I thought 'How can he live here because he could be easily hit by a drone strike?'"</p>
<p>With marble floors, lush green lawns and a towering minaret, the USD 120,000 farm where feared Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud died in a US drone strike was no grubby mountain cave.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Mehsud spent his days skipping around Pakistan's rugged tribal areas to avoid the attentions of US drones. But his family, including two wives, had the use of an eight-roomed farmhouse set amid lawns and orchards growing apples, oranges, grapes and pomegranates.<br /><br />As well as the single-storey house, the compound in Dandey Darpakhel village, five kilometres north of Miranshah, was adorned with a tall minaret -- purely for decorative purposes.<br /><br />Militant sources said the property in the North Waziristan tribal area was bought for Mehsud nearly a year ago for USD 120,000 -- a huge sum by Pakistani standards -- by close aide Latif Mehsud, who was captured by the US in Afghanistan last month.<br /><br />An AFP journalist visited the property several times when the previous owner, a wealthy landlord, lived there.<br /><br />With the Pakistan army headquarters for restive North Waziristan just a kilometre away, locals thought of Mehsud's compound as the "safest" place in a dangerous area.<br /><br />Its proximity to a major military base recalls the hideout of Osama bin Laden in the town of Abbottabad, on the doorstep of Pakistan's elite military academy.<br /><br />"I saw a convoy of vehicles two or three times in this street but I never thought Hakimullah would have been living here. It was the safest place for us before this strike," local shopkeeper Akhter Khan told AFP.<br /><br />This illusion of safety was shattered on Friday when a US drone fired at least two missiles at Mehsud's vehicle as it stood at the compound gate waiting to enter, killing the Pakistani Taliban chief and four cadres.<br /><br />The area around Dandey Darpakhel is known as a hub for the Haqqani network, a militant faction blamed for some of the most high-profile attacks in Afghanistan in recent years.<br /><br />Many left the area during the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan, coming back after the US-led invasion following the 9/11 attacks.<br /><br />Samiullah Wazir, a shopkeeper in the area, told AFP he would regularly see a convoy of four or five SUVs with blacked-out windows leave the compound early in the morning and return after sunset.<br /><br />"We thought that somebody very important must be living in this house," Wazir said.<br /><br />"One day, I saw a man wearing a white shawl entering the house and I thought he looked like Hakimullah, but I thought 'How can he live here because he could be easily hit by a drone strike?'"</p>