WASHINGTON: Newly anointed Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud may have been killed recently during clashes with a rival faction, a senior US counterterrorism official said Saturday.

“There’’s reason to believe that Hakimullah may have died recently — perhaps as the result of factional in-fighting within the Pakistani Taliban,” the official told a foreign news agency, noting the warlord’’s death has yet to be definitively confirmed.

Hakimullah was tapped to lead the group after his predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed by a missile fired from a CIA-operated drone aircraft on August 5.

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