Peshawar: A US drone strike on Tuesday killed at least nine Pakistani Taliban militants in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province near the country’s porous border with Pakistan amid an intensified offensive against terrorists in the restive tribal areas using unmanned aerial vehicles.
Militants belonging to the proscribed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Lashkar-i-Islam (LI) terror organisations were killed in the strike in Nazyan district of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, near the Pak-Afghan border in Khyber Agency.
“Nine militants were killed in the attack,” a Pakistani security official said. Most of the dead were identified including one Shakir Sipah, driver of Mangal Bagh, the chief of Lashkar-i-Islam group. The outlawed Bagh-led Lashkar-i-Islam had recently merged itself into the TTP under a re-organisation by militants.
The CIA-operated unmanned aerial vehicle targeted a suspected militant hideout with two missiles, completely destroying the compound. Several people were also wounded in the strike. The details could not be independently verified as the access of media personnel is severely restricted in the region. Militant hideouts have been frequently pounded by Pakistan’s security forces in Tirah Valley area of Khyber region. (PTI)
