Pakistan Taliban denies reports on death of top Taliban leader

ISLAMABAD, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan Taliban on Sunday denied the reports about the killing of top Taliban commander Hakimullah Mehsud in U.S. drone strike in northwest Pakistan.

Pakistan's Dawn television reported Sunday evening that Hakimullah Mehsud has been killed in a U.S. drone strike in the country's North Waziristan tribal region.

Taliban rejected the report as baseless and a group's spokesman said that Mehsud was not in the area at the time of the strike.

Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan said that Hakimullah Mehsud is alive and safe.

Dawn TV said that Pakistani security sources have confirmed Mehsud had been killed in the U.S. drone strike on Jan. 12.

The report said that the strike had targeted a vehicle near Miranshah, center of North Waziristan, killing four people.

Local media had earlier reported that militants from Turkmenistan had been killed in the strike.

It is the second time that media has reported the death of Hakimullah Mehsud. Local and foreign media had reported in February 2010 that he was killed in a U.S. drone strike. Later he released an audio to deny the rumors.

The U.S. Department of State has offered rewards of up to 5 million U.S. dollars for information leading to the location of Hakimullah Mehsud.

He was appointed the TTP chief after the death of Baitullah Mehsud, the TTP founder, in a U.S. drone strike in August 2009.

Hakimullah Mehsud appeared in a video in January 2010 with the informant-turned-suicide bomber who killed five CIA officers and two CIA security contractors a month earlier in Afghanistan's Khost province.