Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud may have been targeted in a drone strike on January 17th after surviving a similar attack days earlier near the Afghan border, Pakistani intelligence officials said today.
The officials said they had received unconfirmed reports that he may have died of wounds after a drone strike on two vehicles carrying militants in North Waziristan.
Pakistan state television reported earlier that Hakimullah was killed and had been buried.
A military spokesman said he had no information on reports of Hakimullah's death.
Although his death would likely create disarray in Pakistan's Taliban, analysts say it would not deal a major blow to the group, which is fighting to topple the pro-American government.
Pakistan's al-Qaeda-linked Taliban issued an audio tape on January 16th purportedly from Hakimullah denying he was killed in a US drone strike two days earlier.
Hakimullah's profile was raised after he appeared in a farewell video with the suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees in Afghanistan on December 30th.
The intelligence officials said the reports indicated that Hakimullah was taken to Orakzai tribal region after the drone attack on the two vehicles, and that he may have been killed or wounded.
Reuters