US drone kills three in Kurram

PESHAWAR: A US drone killed three suspected militants in an attack on a compound in the Kurram Agency on Friday, officials said, in the first strike since President Donald Trump vowed to crack down on the country. Pakistani officials said the strike took place in remote Ghuz Ghari village, close to the Afghan border where at least five fighters from the Afghan Taliban had gathered.

“The US drone fired two missiles, at least three fighters from the Afghan Taliban have been killed and two wounded,” a senior government official in Kurram told AFP. The identities of those killed and wounded remained unclear but an intelligence official in Kurram said one of the dead belonged to the Haqqani network. Two other mid-level government officials confirmed the strike and casualties and told AFP that the compound was completely destroyed in the attack. 

The use of US drones has dwindled dramatically in recent years in Pakistan, where the strikes have proven extremely controversial with the public and rights groups over human rights and sovereignty concerns.

The US is believed to have ordered at least two other drone attacks this year.  Baseer Khan Wazir, the political agent of Kurram Agency, said the drone strike took place close to the border with Afghanistan. “Two missiles were dropped on the home of Maulvi Mohib and three people have been killed,” he said. 

A spokesman for the US-led international force in Kabul had no immediate information on the report but said he would look into it. Two Afghan Taliban sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mohib was affiliated with the Haqqani network. “He remained associated with the Haqqani network but wasn’t a prominent figure,” said one senior Taliban member.

A second commander confirmed that Mohib was part of the Afghan Taliban: “We don’t differentiate the Haqqani network and Taliban. This is just a propaganda of the western media,” he said.