Haqqani commander among 3 killed in US drone strike in Pak

A top commander of the Haqqani network and two of his associates were killed today when a US drone targeted a home with missiles near Pakistan’s restive tribal Kurram agency bordering Afghanistan, officials said.

Two missiles were fired from the drone at the house in Speen Thall area on the confluence of borders between Hangu district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Orakzai agency.

Haqqani Network Commander Ehsan alias Khawari and two of his companions were reportedly killed during the strike conducted in North Waziristan, Dawn news reported.

The drone strikes, carried out by US spy planes, targeted the house belonging to Afghan refugees, the report said.

Station House Officer Thal Ameer Zaman confirmed the death of a man named Khawari. Local sources from the Orakzai Agency said that the strike was carried out on the Haqqani Network hideout.

On January 17, in the first drone strike of the year, one man was severely injured in Kurram agency’s Badshah Kot area near the Pak-Afghan border.

Drone strikes have surged in Kurram agency in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a new Afghan policy in August, in which Pakistan was also accused of offering “safe havens to agents of chaos”.

Meanwhile, Pakistan on Wednesday criticised the US drone attack on its soil.

“Pakistan has continued to emphasise to the US the importance of sharing actionable intelligence so that appropriate action is taken against terrorists by our forces within our territory,” a statement from the Foreign Office said.

It further added that the country has continued to stress on the early repatriation of Afghan refugees as their presence in Pakistan helps Afghan terrorists to “melt and morph among them”.

Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was also killed in one of such strikes in 2016.