CHRIS BRUMMITT
Associated Press Writer
ISLAMABAD – The death of Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud would inflict major damage against an al-Qaida ally already under pressure from U.S. and Pakistani attacks, but is unlikely to deal a killer blow to an organization blamed for scores of bloody bombings.
The army and government officials said Sunday it was investigating a media report that Mehsud died from injuries sustained in a U.S. missile strike in mid-January close to the Afghan border, but said they could not confirm it. The report was apparently based on witnesses who said they had attended his funeral last week.
The New York Times and the Washington Post quoted anonymous U.S. officials as saying they are more than 90 percent certain Mehsud had died. The Long War Journal, a U.S. Web site that closely monitors the American missile campaign in the northwest, quoted U.S. intelligence officials as saying there was no indication he had been killed.