Factbox: Pakistan Taliban leader Hakimullah targeted by drone

(Reuters) - Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud may have been targeted in a drone strike on January 17 after surviving a similar attack days earlier near the Afghan border, Pakistani intelligence officials said on Sunday.

The officials said they had received unconfirmed reports that he may have died of wounds after a drone strike on two vehicles in North Waziristan, a known sanctuary for al Qaeda and Taliban militants.

Pakistan state television reported earlier that Hakimullah was killed.

Here are some facts about Hakimullah Mehsud:

- Hakimullah became overall head of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (Taliban Movement of Pakistan) in August 2009 after the death of his predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, in a missile strike by a CIA-operated drone.

- Before his elevation as Taliban head, Hakimullah was commander of about 8,000 militants in the Kurram, Orakzai and Khyber ethnic Pashtun tribal regions.

- Hakimullah's profile was raised after he appeared in a farewell video with the suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees in Afghanistan on December 30.

- Believed to be in his 30s, he is considered more violent than his predecessor, but also quite media savvy. He has vowed to take revenge for Mehsud's killing.

- Hakimullah claimed responsibility for a daring suicide attack on Peshawar's Pearl Continental hotel last year that killed seven people, including two U.N. workers. His fighters regularly ambush trucks taking supplies through the Khyber Pass to Afghan government and Western forces across the border.

- He works closely with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a group linked to al Qaeda that has its roots in central Punjab province.

- Hakimullah lost all his main bases in his South Waziristan bastion in a Pakistani offensive in mid-October. His whereabouts are not known but he is believed to have fled South Waziristan to seek shelter with allies, possibly in North Waziristan.