Pakistani forces launch air attack on Taliban

WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani helicopter gunships stepped up attacks on Taliban positions in the South Waziristan region on Wednesday, a day after militants confirmed that their leader was dead and announced his successor.

Pakistani and U.S. officials had been saying for days that Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a missile strike by a CIA-operated drone in his South Waziristan stronghold near the Afghan border on August 5, but the Taliban had been denying it.

Baitullah, an ally of al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban, was accused of a series of attacks in Pakistan over the past couple of years including the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Western governments with troops in Afghanistan are watching to see if a new Pakistani Taliban leader will shift focus from fighting the Pakistani government to aiding the Afghan insurgency.

Security forces have made significant gains in an offensive against the Pakistani Taliban in the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad, since late April, and have also been attacking Mehsud's men in South Waziristan.

Helicopter gunships attacked militant hideouts in Madi Jam, an area 20 km (12 miles) east of South Waziristan's main town of Wana, on Wednesday after Taliban attacked a military convoy, killing two soldiers, intelligence officials and residents said.

Residents in Wana saw armoured personnel carriers heading toward Madi Jam.

"Helicopters dropped leaflets asking people to leave the fighting area," Mohammad Aslam, a resident of Madi Jam, told Reuters by telephone.

Military spokesmen were not available for comment.

Pakistan and U.S. officials had been saying the militants appeared to be in disarray since Mehsud's death.

Analysts saw the Taliban's earlier denials that Mehsud was dead as an attempt to hide divisions over who should take charge of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Taliban Movement of Pakistan, alliance of about 13 militant factions.