Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud is now believed to have survived a U.S. missile strike earlier this year, but has lost clout within the militant network, a senior intelligence official said Thursday.
The revelation contradicts initial confidence among U.S. and Pakistani intelligence officials that the brash militant leader had been killed in a mid-January missile attack in the Waziristan stretch of the northwest tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.
The Taliban consistently denied Mehsud was killed, but declined to offer evidence he was alive, saying it would compromise his safety.
The latest independent investigations and reports from multiple sources in the field led Pakistani intelligence to conclude Mehsud had indeed survived, though with some slight injuries, the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the topic's sensitivity.
But Mehsud's power has lessened, and other Taliban commanders, such as Waliur Rehman, are now overshadowing him, the official said.
By: Brant
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