Pakistani security officials said on Thursday that an unmanned U.S. aircraft had targeted Mehsud in the South Waziristan border area but that it was not known whether he was among about 12 militants killed.

The Taliban said Mehsud had escaped the missile strike, but one militant official said Friday he had been wounded. The group released a tape recording Friday that they said featured Mehsud’s voice. But there was no proof it was him speaking or when it had been made.

A Pakistani Taliban spokesman, Azim Tariq, phoned a Reuters reporter Saturday and played another tape. A man on the tape referred to the rumors of Mehsud’s death and said he was issuing the tape Saturday through his spokesman. “I am neither wounded nor dead,” he said. “I am fine.”

The reporter said the voice sounded like the Taliban commander’s.

– Reuters

SPAIN

Lawmaker’s image used in FBI poster

A Spanish lawmaker said he was horrified to learn that the FBI used an online photograph of him to create an image showing what Osama bin Laden might look like today.

The image using Gaspar Llamazares’s photo appeared on RewardsForJustice.net, a U.S. State Department Web site, updating the U.S. government’s 1998 photo of the al-Qaeda leader.