Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud
Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah MehsudReuters

The head of the Pakistani Taliban has been killed in a U.S. drone strike, Sky News reports, according to U.S. and Pakistani officials.

A senior U.S. intelligence official confirmed the strike, adding that the U.S. has received positive confirmation that Hakimullah Mehsud has been killed.

The strike, carried out in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region, also killed four other suspected terrorists, according to Pakistani intelligence officials quoted by Sky News.

Mehsud, who was believed to be aged in his mid-30s, was one of Pakistan's most wanted men. He has been reported dead several times before.

The U.S. offered $5 million for Mehsud's capture after he appeared in a video with a Jordanian suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees at a base in Afghanistan in 2009.

Mehsud is also believed to be behind a failed car bombing in New York's Times Square in 2010, as well as brazen attacks inside Pakistan.

The U.S. National Counterterrorism Center describes Mehsud as "the self-proclaimed emir of the Pakistani Taliban."

The CIA and the White House have declined to comment on the death.

A drone strike killed Mehsud's number two in May and one of his most trusted lieutenants was captured in Afghanistan last month.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)