Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Umar is not in Pakistan and the United States is only saying he is there to justify an expansion of its drone missile strikes, a Taliban commander said on Wednesday. A US newspaper said this week U.S. officials had expressed concern over the ability of Omar and his lieutenants to launch attacks into Afghanistan from sanctuaries around the Pakistani city of Quetta. Pakistan has long denied that Omar or any of his commanders are based in Pakistan but it has been unable to dispel the suspicion in Washington and Kabul. A Taliban commander, Hayatullah Khan, told a news agency by telephone that the entire Taliban leadership was in Afghanistan.