ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) — The Pakistani government was trying to verify intelligence reports that Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud had been killed in a recent drone attack, officials said Friday.
Villagers gather in front of the rubble of houses belonging to supporters of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.
“The Pakistani government has not yet been able to confirm 100 percent whether Baitullah Mehsud is indeed dead,” Farahnaz Ispahani, advisor to the Pakistani president, told CNN.
Earlier in the day, Pakistan's foreign and interior ministers said the government was still waiting for DNA analysis to confirm the identity of a man killed in an unmanned aerial vehicle strike on Wednesday.
Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, told “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” that the death of the charismatic leader can only be confirmed after processing the physical evidence, but he added that all indications are that these reports are true.
“There are many indicators that make most people believe that Baitullah Mehsud is indeed dead, and his own group announced it,” Haqqani said.
If this proves to be the case, “then this will certainly be a major step forward in proving /topics/Pakistan” class=”cnnInlineTopic”>Pakistan“Our country’s resolve and the United States’ resolve to eliminate extremists and terrorists from our region,” he said.
Earlier this year, the United States issued a reward of up to $5 million “for information leading to the location, arrest and/or conviction” of Mehsud.
The suspected US drone targeted the house of Mehsud's father-in-law, Mulvi Ikram ud Din, in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal area, an intelligence official said.
The suspected drone fired two missiles at the residence, killing Mehsud's second wife and another person, according to intelligence sources and relatives. The U.S. military generally does not comment on reported drone attacks. However, the United States is the only country operating in the region known to have the capability to launch missiles from drones, controlled remotely.
The strike was based on “robust information,” a Pakistani official familiar with intelligence matters told CNN. Since the attack, “the Mehsud network has gone silent, as if in shock,” the official said.
But the official also noted that Mehsud “came alive after previous near misses.” One such near miss occurred in late June at a funeral Mehsud was attending in a Pakistani tribal area. The funeral was targeted by a drone attack but the Pakistanis /topics/Taliban_Movement_of_Pakistan” class=”cnnInlineTopic”>Taliban The leader would have missed being killed by a few hours.
This time, however, “there are increasingly strong indications that Mehsud is in fact dead,” according to a U.S. counterterrorism official, who was not authorized to speak on the record.
“We continue to review information as it comes to us,” the official told CNN. The official said Washington was “seeking its own confirmation” of his death, adding that there may be little DNA to test following the bombing.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said only that the Defense Department was “aware of this information.” But he added that Mehsud's death would be significant.
“Every time a vicious Taliban leader is eliminated, it makes the environment safer,” Whitman said Friday.
“This is an organization that tends to be able to regenerate another leader. These terrorist organizations tend to be decentralized in the execution of their operations. I don't want to do more than what should be done of a single individual, however, he was an important Taliban leader in Pakistan and if he is no longer able to lead operations, that is a good thing.”
Mehsud and other key leaders of the Pakistani Taliban have been targets of the ongoing Pakistani military operation in northwest Pakistan. Hideouts linked to Mehsud are regularly bombed by Pakistani planes and suspected American drones.
The US counterterrorism official stressed that as leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Mehsud had “very close ties to Al-Qaeda.”
He is suspected of being behind numerous attacks, including the December 2007 assassination of the former Pakistani Prime Minister. /topics/Benazir_Bhutto” class=”cnnInlineTopic”>Benazir Bhutto.
Mehsud's close aide recently confirmed that Mehsud was behind the assassination of Bhutto, who was shot dead during a political rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, is the current president of Pakistan.
Mehsud is also suspected of being behind other attacks, including those targeting American soldiers in neighboring Afghanistan.
“There is no doubt that he has American blood on his hands,” the US counterterrorism official said. “His network is responsible for numerous attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan.”
Mehsud boasted to reporters in May 2008 that he had hundreds of trained suicide bombers ready for martyrdom and that he planned to use them to wage a holy war against U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Ispahani described Mehsud as “a murderer and a monster” and said his death would be a boon to Pakistan's ongoing military operation against Taliban militants within its borders.
“Even though people say the Taliban can (re)group very quickly and find another leader, in reality it has given us – if he is dead – a void,” Ispahani said.
“When there is this void and the Taliban are in retreat, that’s the time where we can step in and really clean up.”
CNN's Peter Bergen, Carol Cratty, Samson Desta and reporter Janullah Hashimzada contributed to this report.
All about /topics/Taliban_Movement_of_Pakistan”>Taliban Movement of Pakistan • /topics/Pakistan”>Pakistan • /topics/Benazir_Bhutto”>Benazir Bhutto
