ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- A Taliban spokesman says the group's leader in Pakistan isn't dead as claimed by the United States but is ill and recovering at a relative's house.
Taliban spokesman Maulvi Umar told CNN Tuesday that said Baitullah Mehsud is safe at an undisclosed location and that once he is better he will speak to reporters.
The denial comes a day after an unnamed senior U.S. official told the broadcaster that Washington remained convinced Mehsud was dead based on evidence found at the scene of drone missile attack last week in Pakistan.
The U.S. official said surveillance video showed a short man on the roof of Mehsud's father-in-law's house being tended to by others for sore legs. Mehsud frequently received messages for his legs, which reportedly ached from diabetes. At that point, the official told CNN, the CIA unleashed a drone attack on the house.
The Pakistan Taliban spokesman confirmed to CNN that Mehsud does suffer from diabetes and that a drone attack had taken place at his father-in-law's house.
