ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- The leader of Taliban in Pakistan, Hakimullah Mehsud, was wounded in a suspected U.S. unmanned aircraft attack, intelligence and Taliban authorities said Friday.
Initial reports on Mehsud's status were contradictory, with some media reporting he was dead and other reports saying he escaped unharmed from the drone attack Thursday that killed 10 people.
Taliban and intelligence sources told CNN doctors were treating Mehsud for wounds he sustained in the strike, refuting comments by a Taliban spokesman that Mehsud left the attack site -- a converted religious school -- before four missiles struck.
The strike occurred in Pasal Kot, a village in North Waziristan, a few days after Mehsud was seen in a Taliban-released video sitting next to Human Khlalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, believed to be the suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees and a Jordanian army captain at a base in eastern Afghanistan Dec. 30.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the base attack, saying it was in retaliation for the death of Mehsud's predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, who died in a suspected drone strike last year.
