Pakistan Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah targeted in US drone strike in Afghanistan

The US drone strike was conducted in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province, targeting Maulana Fazlullah's hideout.

File photo

New York: A senior United States military official has confirmed that a drone strike conducted by American forces has targeted terrorist Mullah Fazalullah, the leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, in Afghanistan's Kunar province near the border with Pakistan.

''The drone strike was conducted in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province, targeting Maulana Fazlullah's hideout,'' Lieutenant Colonel Martin O'Donnell told Voice of America (VOA).

United States military official has confirmed to Voice of America (VOA) that an American drone strike targeted Mullah Fazal Ullah, the leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, in an Afghan province near the border with #Pakistan pic.twitter.com/INRGNHcxE9 — ANI (@ANI) June 15, 2018

The US military also later confirmed that it carried out a strike targeting Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province, where Pakistani Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah is believed to be hiding.

"US forces conducted a counter-terrorism strike on June 13 in Kunar province, close to the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which targeted a senior leader of a designated terrorist organisation," Lieutenant Colonel Martin O'Donnell said in a statement.

It added that US forces were continuing to "adhere to a ceasefire" which Kabul has entered into with the Afghan Taliban, the country's main insurgents, seemingly ruling out that group, amid US media reports the attack had targeted Fazlullah.

The US State Department in March announced a USD 5 million reward for help locating the militant leader, who has been linked to bloody attacks in Pakistan and 2010 attempted Times Square car bombing in New York.

It said the group, also known by its Urdu name Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) has "demonstrated a close alliance with al Qaeda" and said it had given explosives training to Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square bomber.

The group was behind the massacre of more than 150 people at a Peshawar school in December 2014, and nine dead in another attack in December 2017 in the same city.

It was also responsible for the October 2012 shooting of Malala Yousafzai, who became a global symbol of the fight for girls' rights to schooling.

According to Pakistani officials, Fazlullah, who is believed to be in his forties, took refuge in Afghanistan after the TTP was pushed out of Pakistan following multiple offensives by the military on its safe havens.