Pakistan Taliban Leader Killed By US Drone

The head of the Pakistani Taliban has been killed in a US drone strike, according to US and Pakistani officials.

A senior US intelligence official confirmed the strike, adding that the US has received positive confirmation that Hakimullah Mehsud has been killed.

The death was also confirmed by a senior Taliban commander, who told Reuters: "We confirm with great sorrow that our esteemed leader was martyred in a drone attack".

The strike - carried out in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region - also killed four other suspected militants, according to Pakistani intelligence officials.

Mehsud, who was believed to be aged in his mid-30s, was one of Pakistan's most wanted men. He has been reported dead several times before.

Mehsud (c) seen with other Taliban militants in a video from October 2009

The US offered $5m (£3.1m) for Mehsud's capture after he appeared in a video with a Jordanian suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees at a base in Afghanistan in 2009.

Mehsud is also believed to be behind a failed car bombing in New York's Times Square in 2010, as well as brazen attacks inside Pakistan.

The US National Counterterrorism Centre describes Mehsud as "the self-proclaimed emir of the Pakistani Taliban". 

The CIA and the White House have declined to comment on the death.

The killing is the latest in a series of setbacks for the Pakistani Taliban.

A drone strike killed Mehsud's number two in May and one of his most trusted lieutenants was captured in Afghanistan last month.

The death follows months of debate over potential peace talks between the Taliban and the new government of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who swept to a landslide victory in May elections.

The strike comes at a politically sensitive time. Pakistan's government has been trying to cut a peace deal with the militants to end years of fighting that has killed thousands of Pakistani civilians and security forces.

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