Pakistan Taliban says its deputy chief killed in US drone strike

"We confirm that the deputy head of the TTP Khalid Mehsud died in a drone strike," Taliban spokesman Muhammad Khurassani said in a text message to reporters.

Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah has appointed commander Mufti Noor Wali Wali as his new deputy, Khurassani added.

Officials in Pakistan had earlier reported about Sajna's death in a US strike.

Sajna was a leading figure of the Taliban and that both Pakistani and American security forces were after him for a long time.

According to Pakistani officials, Sajna was battlehardened with experience of fighting in Afghanistan. Sajna, in his early 40s, was believed to be involved in an attack on a naval base in Karachi and was credited with masterminding a 2012 jailbreak in which the Taliban freed nearly 400 inmates in the northwestern city of Bannu.