A suspected U.S. drone strike in northwestern Pakistan has killed a commander of the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network, local officials say.
A security official said on June 13 that the commander, identified as Abubakar, died in an overnight strike in the Speen Tal area of the Hangu district.
A resident of Dewal village, Behram Khan, said three more people were injured in the strike, including a boy.
Khan said Abubakar was from Afghanistan's Khost Province and that his original name was Omar.
He added that the slain commander moved to Dewal from Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal district after the Pakistani military launched a counterterrorist operation there in 2014.
The drone strike comes after a May 31 truck bombing in Kabul killed more than 150 people in the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital since the ouster of the Taliban following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
Afghan officials blamed the Pakistan-based Haqqani network for the blast.
However, Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Afghan Taliban's second-in-command and head of the Haqqani network, denied any involvement in an audio message distributed to the media late on June 11.
https://www.rferl.org/a/pakistan-afghanistan-haqqani-network-commander-killed-drone/28545228.html
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