Reports of Mehsud's Death Exaggerated?

The Long War Journal has covered the situation in Pakistan as close as anyone, and they note that Pakistani reports claiming that Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud has died of an illness has not been confirmed. There's no evidence to back up the claims:

Unconfirmed reports from Pakistan indicate that Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, died of complications from an illness. But US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal are highly skeptical of the report and see no evidence he is dead.

Baituallah is reported to have died from complications related to "high blood pressure and kidney disease," Geo TV said this afternoon. There are no further details, but reports from earlier in the week indicated he was in a coma due to complications from diabetes.

Reports of Baitullah’s death are unconfirmed, and US intelligence and Pakistani sources do not believe he has in fact died.

A Pakistani source contacted an official at Geo TV, who said there is "no substantiation" to the claim. The reporter who provided the information to Geo TV "had nothing to back this claim up," the source told The Long War Journal.

These reports surface at a time when the US airstrikes via Raptor drones continues to take out Taliban and al Qaeda thugs inside Pakistani territory, including Warizistan, the NWFP and FATA.

The two intelligence officials said the missiles struck the home of a local Taliban commander before midnight Tuesday near Mir Ali, a town in the North Waziristan region.

The officials, citing reports from their field agents, said six people were killed in the attack. Both officials asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.

They said a U.S. drone aircraft — not Pakistani forces — fired the missiles.

They did not identify any of the victims.

Some of the reports claim that Mehsud was diabetic and fell seriously ill and/or died and that a power struggle for supremacy and control over the Taliban thugs is on. The Taliban's own spokes-thug claim that the stories are untrue.

The Taliban and Mehsud may be trying to plant these stories in the media so as to throw the US from their trail and improve Mehsud's operational security.