Suspected US drone strike kills 7 militants

dera ismail khan — A suspected US drone strike killed several Pakistani Taleban militants in North Waziristan close to the Afghanistan border, one militant commander and intelligence sources said on Thursday, in a rare strike on Pakistani soil.

If confirmed, the air strike, which happened on Wednesday, would only be the second drone attack inside Pakistan since US President Donald Trump took office in January.

Abdullah Wazirstani, spokesman for North Waziristan Taleban, a group linked to the Pakistani Taleban, said the strike killed three civilian “labourers” and seven militants from the Pakistani Taleban.

Malik Waheedullah, a local tribal leader, said he saw two missiles strike a mountain home which caught fire. “I drove away as fast as I could,” he said.

One intelligence official and government source said they believed the strike to be a US drone attack.

North Waziristan was a Taleban stronghold until 2014, when Pakistan’s military launched a major offensive against the group and pushed many of its fighters across the border into Afghanistan.

Sources from the TTP identified one of the dead militants as Abdur Rahman, a senior commander of the Pakistani Taleban. —