Islamabad: US and Pakistani authorities are investigating reports that Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was killed in an American missile strike, officials from both countries said on Friday.
If confirmed, Mehsud's demise would be a major boost to Pakistani and US efforts to eradicate the Taliban and Al-Qaida.
Mehsud is believed responsible for dozens of suicide attacks, beheadings and target killings in Pakistan. He is allied with Al-Qaida and has been suspected in the killing of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Pakistan views him as its top internal threat and has been preparing an offensive against him. The US sees him as a danger to the war effort in Afghanistan, largely because of the threat he is believed to pose to nuclear-armed Pakistan.
The missile strike hit the home of Mehsud's father-in-law in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal region early Wednesday. Intelligence officials say Mehsud's second wife was among at least two people killed, and Mehsud associates have claimed he was not among the dead.
Pakistan army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas cautioned that the reports of Mehsud's death are still unconfirmed. "We are receiving reports and probing," he said.
The US government is also looking into the reports, according to a US counter-terrorism official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.