Taliban's leader in Pakistan killed

Mehsud, blamed for a fearsome campaign of suicide attacks and assassinations, was hit by a missile strike fired from a remote-controlled drone aircraft.

The United States put a five million dollar (£2.95m) bounty on his head in March.

Taliban commanders met on Friday in the lawless tribal area of South Waziristan to choose his successor.

Considered by Pakistan to be its top internal threat, Mehsud had al Qaida connections and was a suspect in the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Intelligence officials said the CIA was behind the strike that killed Mehsud on Wednesday at his father-in-law's house in Waziristan.

"I confirm that Baitullah Mehsud and his wife died in the American missile attack in South Waziristan," said Taliban commander Kafayat Ullah.

For years, the US considered Mehsud a lesser threat to its interests than some of the other Pakistani Taliban, their Afghan counterparts and al Qaida, because most of his attacks were focused inside Pakistan, not against Western troops in Afghanistan. That view appeared to change in recent months as Mehsud's power grew and concerns mounted that increasing violence in Pakistan could destabilise the country and threaten the entire region.

Last year, Mehsud held a rare news conference the town of Kot Kai in South Waziristan to discuss his fight against the US.

"It is the top desire of my life to obtain martyrdom, I have strong feelings for the martyrdom in my heart," he said. "To be a martyr, to be wounded or arrested we consider it as a sacrifice."

He said the Taliban supported suicide bombings. "America is bombing us and we are facing cruelty, so we will support these suicide attacks," he said. "They (suicide bombers) are our atom bombs. Although the infidels have the atom bombs, our atom bombs are the finest in the world. They use the atom (bomb) and it destroyed everything while our one bomb just targets one target to be destroyed."