CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan is reporting that the “Pakistani authorities” have intercepted a letter carrying verified seal and signatures of Baitullah Mehsud stating that Al-Qaeda number 2 Dr Zawahiri is critically injured. This letter has already reached the hand of Ms Logan and she reports that it refers to Sheikh Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri by name – and says that he is in “severe pain” and his “injuries are infected.” Ironically the Pakistani authorities have only sign of confusion on the bit of news and the Taliban have rebutted the report. If the report, however, is correct it essentially implies that Zawahiri must have been hit on 28th July when alleged Al Qaeda weapons expert Abu Khabab al-Masri, and five other Arabs were killed in South Waziristan.
The shocking thing about the report is not the news itself but the surprise of the ISPR and the Pakistani authorities. These raids cannot have been conducted with Pakistan being in an intelligence vacuum. If the letter is genuine and there are reasons to believe its veracity, it must have passed through the hands of at least some Pakistani officials. Could it be the classic case of a barium meal? If it was it has most certainly identified a leak to the media. Yet this time the report was not carried in the New York Times but CBS news which is quite well known for its credibility (with the exception of the Dan Rather law suit). However if the Pakistani authorities are indeed in the dark this confirms my point on the lack of counter intellignce and something should be done about it. 
As for the Taliban reaction it is quite natural for them to deny the reports. A militant group fighting a battle of survival seldom confirms easily the fall of its mighty. If you remember the case of Ahmad Shah Masud despite his demise it took the Northern Alliance two days to confirm just that. Yet if the reports of Zawahiri’s injuries or death are it is a huge success in the war on terror.