US drone ‘kills’ TTP’s Fazlullah in Kunar: VOA

KABUL: A US drone strike has targeted Mullah Fazlullah the leader of the Pakistani Taliban in an Afghan province near the border with Pakistan, a US military official confirmed to VOA. Unconfirmed reports from locals Thursday said Mullah Fazlullah has been killed.

The US official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the strike late Wednesday targeted Fazullah, the chief of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP. Fazlullah was a major headache for Pakistan’s counter terrorism efforts as he was involved in major terrorist acts inside Pakistan including the attack on the Peshawar school that killed over 150 people including mostly children. The “US forces conducted a counterterrorism strike June 13 in Kunar province, close to the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which targeted a senior leader of a designated terrorist organization,” a spokesman for US Forces-Afghanistan, Army Lt. Col. Martin O’Donnell, also told VOA Thursday, without specifying that Fazullah was the target.

The Pentagon officials decline to comment at this time on whether the strike was successful. The strike comes amid a cease-fire between the Afghan Taliban and government security forces to mark the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of US Forces-Afghanistan and the NATO-led Resolute Support, said the United States would adhere to the cease-fire announced by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, which did not include US counterterrorism attacks on other terror groups.

“As previously stated, the cease-fire does not include US counterterrorism efforts against IS-K, al-Qaida, and other regional and international terrorist groups, or the inherent right of US and international forces to defend ourselves if attacked,” O’Donnell told VOA.-VOA