Q+A: Pakistan says Mehsud dead, Taliban denies-who to believe?

By Zeeshan Haider

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani and U.S. officials say they are quite certain Pakistani Taliban chief and al Qaeda cohort Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a missile strike by a U.S. drone in the South Waziristan tribal region last week.

But senior Taliban commanders deny their leader is dead.

It is difficult to independently verify the claims and counter-claims as the missile strike by a pilotless U.S. drone aircraft took place in the Mehsud tribal lands of South Waziristan, a remote, Taliban-controlled area of northwest Pakistan.

Analysts say the government will be maximizing any opportunity in a fluid situation to demoralize the Taliban and create rifts between rival factions while the question of Mehsud's successor remained open.

If Mehsud is dead, analysts said the Taliban's reluctance to admit he had been killed was probably aimed at closing ranks to reinforce unity and reduce anxiety within the movement while the leadership chose a replacement.

Here are the accounts given by Pakistani and Taliban officials in favor of their claims.

WHERE IS THE PROOF OF DEATH?

Pakistani officials say credible intelligence reports suggested that Mehsud, the government's public enemy number one, was killed along with his wife when two missiles fired by a U.S. drone hit the house of his father-in-law in the Makeen area of South Waziristan on August 5 shortly after midnight. But they say they have no material evidence to corroborate their claim.

Speaking in parliament late on Monday, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Mehsud was being medically treated for a stomach ailment at the house of his father-in-law when the missiles struck.

"A paramedics staff, who provided treatment to Baitullah on that night, said he left him on the rooftop of the residence after injecting a drip to him," the official Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Malik as saying.

Malik said Mehsud's wife and his bodyguards were also killed.

"According to credible evidence, Baitullah Mehsud is dead but we are trying to work out evidence in terms of DNA tests and statements of family members," the minister said.

U.S. National Security Adviser Jim Jones said there were "pretty conclusive" reasons to believe Mehsud had been killed.

"We think so. We put it in the 90 percent category," Jones told NBC's "Meet the Press" when asked if Mehsud had been killed.

WHERE IS THE PROOF OF LIFE?