Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters Feb. 10 that senior Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan leader Qari Hussain Mehsud may have been killed along with TTP chief Hakeemullah Mehsud. Malik also dismissed claims from the country's largest jihadist rebel group that Islamabad is engaged in talks with the TTP, though he said talks with those willing to end attacks could happen. Neither Pakistani nor U.S. officials have said unequivocally that Hakeemullah Mehsud is dead. At their most definite, they have said the TTP leader's death is very likely. It has been even more difficult to get confirmation of Hussain's death. STRATFOR sources in the Pakistani security establishment maintain that Hussain was killed with Hakeemullah in the same Jan. 14 unmanned aerial vehicle strike, but other sources in the Pashtun northwest maintain that the two would not have traveled together for reasons of operational security.