Pakistan investigates report Taliban chief is dead

ISLAMABAD — The Pakistani government was investigating reports Sunday that Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud died from injuries sustained in a U.S. drone missile strike launched in mid-January after he helped orchestrate a deadly bombing against the CIA in Afghanistan.

Mehsud's predecessor was killed in a missile strike less than six months ago, and inflicting another blow to the militant group's leadership would be an important success for both Pakistan and the U.S.

The U.S. unleashed more than a dozen drone strikes in the month following the Dec. 30 suicide bombing against the CIA in Afghanistan, and Mehud's death would be further proof of the ability of the unmanned aircraft to target Taliban and al-Qaida leaders holed up in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas.

Pakistani government officials said they were investigating whether Mehsud was mortally wounded in one of those strikes after state television reported that he died in Orakzai, an area in Pakistan's tribal region where he was supposedly being treated for his injuries.

"We have these reports coming to us," army spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas told The Associated Press. "We are investigating whether it is true or wrong."

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the state TV report relied on "local sources" in Orakzai that the government could not confirm.

"But the local tribal elders there and the local population say that he has been buried," Malik told ARY News TV.

A tribal elder told the AP that he attended Mehsud's funeral in the Mamuzai area of Orakzai on Thursday, after Mehsud died at his in-laws' home. The elder spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from the Taliban.

Pakistani intelligence officials had said that Mehsud was targeted in a U.S. drone strike against a meeting of militant commanders in South Waziristan on Jan. 14, triggering rumors that he had been injured or killed.

Mehsud issued an audio tape after the strike directly denying the rumors, and his voice sounded strong. But Pakistani intelligence officials told the AP on Sunday that they had confirmation that the Taliban chief's legs and abdomen were wounded in the strike.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Pakistani Taliban officials were not immediately available for comment, but low-level fighters have dismissed rumors of Mehsud's death in recent days as propaganda.