ISLAMABAD, (Reuters) – There is a strong likelihood  that Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was killed along  with his wife and bodyguards in a missile attack two days ago,  Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik told Reuters.

“We suspect he was killed in the missile strike,” Malik  said yesterday. “We have some information, but we don’t have  material evidence to confirm it.”

ABC News cited a senior U.S. official as saying there was  a 95 percent chance that Mehsud was among those killed in the  missile strike. U.S. officials have visual and other indicators  it was Mehsud and Pakistanis are now trying to collect physical  evidence to be certain, ABC reported.

A U.S. official also told Reuters that there was reason to  believe Mehsud was dead.

“There is reason to believe that reports of his death may  be true, but it can’t be confirmed at this time,” said the  official, providing the information on condition of anonymity.

The official would not comment on the circumstances  surrounding Mehsud’s possible death.

The United States has placed a $5 million reward on the  head of Mehsud, an ally of al Qaeda widely regarded in Pakistan  as Public Enemy No. 1.

The attack in a tribal region of northwest Pakistan was  believed to have been carried out by a pilotless U.S. drone  aircraft at around 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday.

Neither the Pakistani nor U.S. governments confirm such  attacks because of sensitivities over violation of Pakistan’s  territorial sovereignty.

Intelligence officials and relatives had confirmed earlier  that Mehsud’s second wife had been killed in the missile strike  that targeted her father’s home in an outlying settlement close  to Makeen village in the South Waziristan tribal region.

A relative of Mehsud’s dead wife had initially said the  Taliban leader wasn’t present when the missiles struck, but  rumours that he had either been wounded or killed refused to  die down.

The stricken house is some two hours’ walk from Makeen, and  Taliban fighters had cordoned off the area, refusing to let  people enter, according to villagers.

A senior Pakistani security official said that aside from  Mehsud’s wife, one of Mehsud’s brothers and seven of his  bodyguards perished in the attack.