KURRAM AGENCY: At least 12 suspected militants were allegedly killed in a drone strike in Afghanistan’s Paktia province on Friday
Security sources said that a United States US drone fired six missiles, killing 12 ‘militants’ and wounding several others.
Earlier this week, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar chief Umar Khalid Khorasani was killed in a US drone strike in Paktia along with nine of his accomplices.
The recent unprecedented increase in drone strikes near the Pak-Afghan border region appeared to be reflective of a change in policy by Washington, with at least 70 strikes conducted in Afghanistan in the past three weeks, and over 30 people killed in strikes near the border in the last few days.
Amid speculations that strikes had targeted militants inside Pakistani territory, Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif and the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the army’s media wing, had claimed that the strikes were carried out in Afghan territory and Pakistan’s airspace was not violated.
The number of drone strikes near the Pak-Afghan border saw a surge after the Pakistan Army said that it had recovered “safe and sound” a family of foreign hostages from the custody of a terrorist outfit after it received and acted on intelligence shared by the United States.
Published in Daily Times, October 21st 2017.
