The Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a CIA missile strike, a senior Taliban commander said today.
Kafayat Ullah, an aide to Mehsud, told the Associated Press news agency that Mehsud and his second wife were killed in Wednesday's missile attack in South Waziristan. He would not provide any further details.
Mehsud is said to have died when a drone plane fired two Hellfire missiles at a remote farmhouse where he was sheltering, early on Wednesday.
The death of Mehsud would represent a quantum leap for Pakistan's war against the rampaging Islamist militancy based in the tribal belt along the Afghan border.
Earlier this morning there were counter claims that Mehsud was injured but alive.
In Washington, White House officials told reporters there were "strong indications" Mehsud was dead. Pakistani television channels, quoting intelligence sources, said he had already been buried in his home village, Narkosa, near the strike site.
The Pakistani interior minister, Rehman Malik, expressed cautious optimism, telling reporters that "a lot of information is pouring in from that area but I'm unable to confirm unless I have solid evidence that he is dead". Western diplomats in Islamabad were similarly careful in their assessments.
Reports have emerged that his organisation, the feared Tehrik I Taliban Pakistan (TTP), plans to hold a leadership council today to elect a successor. Mehsud's most senior lieutenant, Hakeemullah Mehsud, is the favourite candidate.
In the wake of Wednesday's strike, Pakistani and American officials are sifting through intelligence intercepts, some of which indicate dismay and disarray in militant circles. The most conclusive proof would come through DNA evidence but it is difficult to obtain samples from the strike site. Taliban fighters have occupied surrounding villages and prevented anyone from leaving.
Mehsud, thought to have been 39 years old, was the most notorious militant commander in Pakistan – much more so than Osama bin Laden, who is thought to be hiding along the Afghan border.
Mehsud's TTP has revolted and frightened Pakistanis with suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of soldiers, police, intelligence officials and civilians. The TTP has up to 20,000 fighters, according to some estimates, and its territory stretches across the tribal belt.
Mehsud has denied CIA accusations of responsibility for the December 2007 assassination of the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. A UN panel is investigating the killing.
In recent months the US has targeted him with covert drone strikes and put a $5m bounty on his head. The Pakistani government offered $650,000.
Mehsud is not the only Taliban leader. Two other senior figures, Qari Gul Bahadur in North Waziristan and Maulvi Nazir in South Waziristan, are also powerful, although less prominent because they direct their fighters into Afghanistan.
