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The Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a CIA missile strike, a senior Taliban commander said today. Kafayat Ullah, an aide to Mehsud, told the Associated Press news agency that Mehsud and his second wife were killed in Wednesday's missile attack in South Waziristan. He would not provide any further details. Mehsud is said to have died when a drone plane fired two Hellfire missiles at a remote farmhouse where he was sheltering, early on Wednesday.

The death of Mehsud would represent a quantum leap for Pakistan's war against the rampaging Islamist militancy based in the tribal belt along the Afghan border. Earlier this morning there were counter claims that Mehsud was injured but alive. In Washington, White House officials told reporters there were "strong indications" Mehsud was dead. Pakistani television channels, quoting intelligence sources, said he had already been buried in his home village, Narkosa, near the strike site.

The Pakistani interior minister, Rehman Malik, expressed cautious optimism, telling reporters that "a lot of information is pouring in from that area but I'm unable to confirm unless I have solid evidence that he is dead". Western diplomats in Islamabad were similarly careful in their assessments.