A missile from a suspected U.S. drone killed an Afghan militant commander as he was having a shower in his village close to the Pakistani border with Afghanistan, Pakistani police and Taliban sources have said.
Nasir Mahmood – a member of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network – was in a house in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous Federally Administered Tribal Areas when he died, senior police officer Ameer Zaman was quoted by NBC News as saying. He was also known as Ihsanullah and as Khowarai by his fighters.
Three Taliban sources confirmed to NBC that Mahmood, who like millions of his countrymen had lived in Pakistan over the last four decades, had been killed. They are reported to have shared a photo of his body as he was being being prepared for burial.
A Pakistani tribesman inspects the site of a drone strike in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal area on Wednesday (24 January) in which a mid-level Afghan Taliban commander was reported to have been killed
The drone attack caused widespread damage and was believed to have injured another Haqqani commander
President Trump on new year’s day said that Pakistan had given nothing back to the U.S. for its $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years apart from ‘lies and deceit’
Pakistan denounced President Trump’s new year criticism, describing it as ‘completely incomprehensible’ and at odds with recent ‘trust-building’ visits by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (right) and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis (left)
Police and Taliban sources say that another Haqqani commander was injured in the strike in Biland Khel village.
Mahmood is believed to have led fighters on multiple attacks on Afghan security forces and U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
Pakistan considers U.S. drone strikes a violation of its sovereignty, while the U.S. accuses Pakistan of providing safe havens for militants, a charge Pakistan has repeatedly denied. It insists that it fights against all militants without discrimination.
‘Pakistan has continued to emphasize to the United States the importance of sharing actionable intelligence so that appropriate action is taken against terrorists by our forces within our territory,’ a statement from the Foreign Affairs ministry in Islamabad said.
The ministry condemned the strike, saying it targeted an Afghan refugee camp. At the same time it repeated Pakistan’s demand for the early repatriation of all Afghan refugees.
‘Their presence in Pakistan helps Afghan terrorists melt and morph among them,’ it said.
Pakistani-U.S. relations nosedived after the 2011 U.S. operation that killed al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in his hideout in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad.
In January tensions again surfaced when President Donald Trump accused Pakistan of providing a safe haven for terrorists, saying that the U.S. had ‘foolishly’ given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years and had received nothing in return but ‘lies and deceit.’
Washington later confirmed it will withhold $255 million in U.S. military aid to Pakistan this year.
The Haqqani network is closely linked to the Afghan Taliban which is trying to overthrow the U.S.-backed government in Kabul. The State Department designated it as a foreign terrorist organization in 2012.
Their wealth and close ties to local tribes prompted one Western diplomat to describe them as ‘the Kennedys of the Taliban movement.’
The network operates in lawless parts of the semi-autonomous tribal regions of Pakistan and has carried out some of the bloodiest attacks in the Afghan war.
American drones have relentlessly targeted militants in the region where the Afghan Taliban took sanctuary after being driven out of nearby North Waziristan in June 2014.