Pakistan Taliban chief likely targeted by drone

Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud may have been targeted in a drone strike on Jan. 17 after surviving a similar attack days earlier near the Afghan border, Pakistani intelligence officials said on Sunday.

The officials said they had received unconfirmed reports that he may have died of wounds after a drone strike on two vehicles carrying militants in North Waziristan.

Pakistan state television reported earlier that Hakimullah was killed and had been buried.

 Hakimullah is alive and safe. The purpose of stories regarding his death is to create differences among Taliban ranks, but such people will never succeed 

Chief Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq

Although his death would likely create disarray in Pakistan's Taliban, analysts say it would not deal a major blow to the group, which is fighting to topple the pro-American government.

Pakistan's al-Qaeda-linked Taliban issued an audio tape on Jan 16. purportedly from Hakimullah denying he was killed in a U.S. drone strike two days earlier.

Again on Sunday the militants group denied the fresh rumors Mehsud is dead, while the Pakistani army said it was investigating the reports.

"Hakimullah is alive and safe. The purpose of stories regarding his death is to create differences among Taliban ranks, but such people will never succeed," chief Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq told AFP by telephone from an unknown location.

"People who are saying that Hakimullah has died should provide proof of it --we have already proved that he is alive and we have provided two audio tapes of him to all the media."

Hakimullah's profile was raised after he appeared in a farewell video with the suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees in Afghanistan on Dec. 30.