Factbox - Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda

(Reuters) - A possible link between Pakistan and the fizzled Times Square attack, along with the revelation that Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud is alive, has raised fears local militants are aspiring to a global reach.

Such a link could also put Pakistan under renewed U.S. pressure to open risky new fronts against Islamic militants.

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (Taliban Movement of Pakistan) released three video messages over the weekend following the failed car bomb and featuring Mehsud and Qari Hussain -- the mentor of the militant group's suicide bombers -- claiming credit for the attempted attack and threatening more on U.S. cities.

Many security experts are sceptical the TTP has the ability to stage attacks outside Pakistan, but worry it may be growing closer to al Qaeda and could be adopting the global aims of Osama bin Laden instead of limiting itself to fighting the Pakistani state.

Here are some facts about the TTP and its apparent leader, Hakimullah Mehsud:

- Mehsud became overall head of the TTP last August after the death of his predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, in a missile strike by a CIA-operated drone. In January, it was thought Hakimullah had been killed in a similar missile strike, but his reappearance in the weekend's videos show he survived and was alive as of April, based on statements in the video. Mehsud is an ethnic Pashtun tribal name and Hakimullah and Baitullah were not related.

- Before his elevation as Taliban head, Mehsud commanded about 8,000 militants in the Kurram, Orakzai and Khyber ethnic Pashtun tribal regions in northwest Pakistan.

- Hakimullah claimed responsibility for a daring suicide attack on Peshawar's Pearl Continental hotel last year that killed seven people, including two U.N. workers. His fighters regularly ambush trucks taking supplies through the Khyber Pass to Afghan government and Western forces across the border.

- He works closely with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a group linked to al Qaeda with roots in central Punjab province.

- Hakimullah lost all his main bases in his South Waziristan bastion in a Pakistani army offensive launched in mid-October.

- His whereabouts are not known but he is believed to have fled from South Waziristan to seek shelter with allies, possibly in North Waziristan.

- There are signs the TTP is growing closer to al Qaeda, based on Mehsud's latest videos. One of the main dangers of al Qaeda, according to security experts, is its ability to "infect" local militants with its vision for global jihad against the West. This allows them to use other groups' capabilities rather than develop its own.

- Mehsud spoke forcefully about militants in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Gaza -- all favoured subjects of al Qaeda. And if Mehsud and other TTP figures have fled to North Waziristan, they are likely in close proximity to al Qaeda figures.

- Mehsud also appeared in a previous video showing him sitting beside a Jordanian double agent who crossed over Pakistan's border and killed seven CIA employees in a suicide bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan on December 30.

- Mehsud's appearance with the bomber created the impression his group played a major role in the second biggest attack on the CIA in the agency's history.

- But analysts doubted his group had the sophistication to trick the CIA, viewing the group as at most providing organisational support for an operation more likely masterminded by al Qaeda.

- Mehsud was born in Kotkai village in South Waziristan and got his early education at a madrasa, or religious school.

- He fought against U.S. forces in Afghanistan after the 2001 ousting of the Taliban and told reporters he had battled NATO forces in Afghanistan's Helmand province.

- He later returned to Pakistan's Pashtun tribal lands along the border and began fighting the Pakistani security forces.

(Editing by Jerry Norton)