Seven TTP militants among 10 killed in US drone attack in NWA

MIRANSHAH: Ten militants, including seven affiliated with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), were killed in a US drone attack on a compound in the North Waziristan Agency on Thursday.

Official and local sources said the incident took place in the Gorweek village in Dattakhel sub-division of North Waziristan close to the Afghan border. According to government officials based in North Waziristan's regional headquarters Miranshah, the drone fired two missiles on a compound stated to be in the use of Pakistani Taliban militants.

"The drone fired two missiles and targeted a compound in the Gorweek village in Dattakhel sub-division near the Afghan border. As per intercepts of the militants, eight Taliban fighters were killed in the attack," said a government official based in Miranshah.

The village, where the drone fired missiles at the suspected militants' compound, is located about 65 kilometres west of Miranshah. The compound was stated to be of a group led by Mulla Akhtar Muhammad, who belongs to the Janikhel area of Bannu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He had established his bases in North Waziristan's Dattakhel sub-division.

"It was the Bibak training camp of Mulla Akhtar Muhammad. He had close links with Uzbek militants and there are reports that some Uzbek fighters were among those hit," a security official said on condition of anonymity. He said it was not clear whether the compound was located in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

A government official said on condition of anonymity that there were indications that a senior Pakistani militant commander, Abdur Rahman, was among those killed in the drone strike, though confirmation was still awaited. Government officials and local residents said it was after a long time that a US drone carried out missile strike on the Pakistani side of the Pak-Afghan border in North Waziristan. 

The Pakistani security forces conducted a massive military offensive against the local and foreign militants in North Waziristan in June 2014 and expelled majority of the militants from there. It was said to be the second drone strike in Pakistan since Donald Trump's election as President of the US. Earlier this year, a drone had undertaken a missile strike on a member of Afghan Taliban secret service in Paktia province. He was targeted in the Kurram Agency.

According to tribesmen, after the militants were expelled from towns and villages in Miranshah and its adjoining areas as a result of the military operation by the Pakistani security forces, they escaped to the border areas with Afghanistan and established their sanctuaries on the Pakistani side of the border.