US drone strike kills 15 TTP militants in Afghanistan

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: A US drone strike killed at least 15 Pakistani Taliban militants in Afghanistan’s Gomal district on Wednesday, intelligence officials said on Friday.

Three Pakistani intelligence officials confirmed Wednesday’s strike in an area bordering Pakistan’s South Waziristan region.

“Fifteen dead bodies of killed militants will be shifted soon to their native areas in Dera Ismail Khan,” one intelligence official said, referring to a town in northwestern Pakistan.

Three officials confirmed the 15 militants belonged to the Gandapur faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) led by Mullah Fazlullah, who claimed responsibility for the massacre of more than 130 pupils at an army-run school in Peshawar last December.

Tracking of drone strikes in Afghanistan is patchy – many of them take place in remote regions and are not reported – but Taliban commanders say that fighters there have been increasingly targeted since late last year.

The strikes come a week after Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to end a blame game over a spate of militant attacks and work to restore trust.