US drone kills two Afghan Taleban commanders

peshawar — A US drone on Thursday killed two militants riding on a motorbike in Pakistan’s northwest tribal region, officials said, the first such attack in the country under the administration of new American President Donald Trump.

The CIA-operated drone fired two missiles that killed two Taleban militants on the spot in a village in Kurram Agency, near the Afghanistan border, a local government official said.

The two were identified as Afghan Taleban commander Qari Abdullah Sabrai and Commander Affan.

Drone strikes are extremely unpopular among many Pakistanis because they are seen as a violation of the country’s sovereignty, although leaked documents have shown that Islamabad and Washington have secretly colluded over

The drone came from afghanistan and returned after firing two missiles on the motorbike A local govt official

some cases in the past. The attack occurred in the Sara Khwa area of Kurram, one of seven so-called tribal agencies that lie along the border with Afghanistan, where Pakistan has been battling militants for more than a decade and a half. A local government official confirmed the strike and the casualties.

“The drone came from Afghanistan and returned after firing two missiles on the motorbike,” he said.

The investigation into the strike has been started, the official said. The last US drone attack took place in May 2016, killing the then leader of the Afghan Taleban Mullah Akhtar Mansour as well as his driver in southwestern Balochistan province.

The very first of the more than 420 attacks occurred in 2004 under the government of President George W. Bush, but it was under President Barack Obama that their use increased substantially, before tapering off in his second term. Last year there were only three. Drones have proven extremely controversial with the Pakistani public and rights groups. In 2013, Amnesty International said the US could be guilty of war crimes by carrying out extrajudicial killings. The strike could be read as the first hint about President Trump’s policy towards Pakistan, a country he has spoken about relatively little. — AFP, PTI