At least 12 'militants' killed in US drone attack in Afghanistan

Sources say 7 others injured; 6 terror hideouts destroyed

HANGU: A day after Jamaatul Ahrar chief Omar Khalid Khorasani was confirmed dead, at least 12 suspected militants were killed and seven others wounded in a US drone attack near the Pak-Afghan border on Friday.

The strikes, which were carried out in the border area of Afghanistan’s Paktia province, destroyed six militant hideouts, a source told The Express Tribune.

The development came on the heels of a warning to the terrorist groups by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who said militants had no other option but to surrender or face elimination. Ghani’s warning followed a wave of suicide attacks targeting police compounds and government facilities in the south, east and west of the country.



US President Donald Trump vowed earlier this year to stay the course in Afghanistan, America’s longest war. But the Taliban said the recent assaults were a “clear message to the Americans and the Kabul government, that they cannot scare us with their new so-called strategy”.

On Monday, the chief of an offshoot of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and 25 others were killed in two US drone strikes along the Pak-Afghan border.