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Pakistan officials: Taliban leader Mehsud dead

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-07 13:43

Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud speaks to reporters in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal region in this May 24, 2008 file photo. [Agencies]

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Three Pakistani intelligence officials say that Pakistan's Taliban chief has been killed in a CIA missile strike and his body buried.

But one of the three says no intelligence agent has actually seen the body.

The officials say Mehsud was killed in Wednesday's missile attack on the home of his father-in-law. They say his body has been buried in the village of Nardusai in South Waziristan, not far from the site of the missile strike.

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The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

One official says he has seen a classified intelligence report stating Mehsud was dead and buried, but that agents have not seen the body as the area was under Taliban control.

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik says "there is no confirmation to his death as far as the evidence is concerned. I repeat again, yes, the information is pouring from that area that he is dead."