Pakistan claims local Taliban leader is dead

Pakistan says there is credible information that Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud has died of wounds inflicted in a US drone aircraft attack in January.

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ISLAMABAD // Pakistan has said there is credible information that Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud had died of wounds inflicted in a US drone aircraft attack in January. "I have credible information that he's dead but I don't have any confirmation," the interior minister Rehman Malik told reporters. However, two Taliban officials, including a senior commander, denied earlier in the day that their leader had died.

The rumours about the fate of Mr Mehsud began yesterday after a Taliban official told journalists that he had died of wounds. * Reuters