Pakistani Taliban supremo Fazllullah reportedly killed

KABUL Fazlullah has apparently been killed in a US drone strike in eastern Kunar province, media reports said on Thursday.

The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP) leader Mullah Fazlullah was targeted in a US drone strike near the border with Pakistan, the Voice of America radio reported quoted a US military official. The official US radio also quoted unconfirmed reports from the target area as claiming that Mullah Fazlullah had been killed.

A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the strike was carried out late Wednesday and the TTP chief was its target but he also said that he could not confirm if he was killed.

A spokesman for US Forces-Afghanistan, Army Lt Col Martin O’Donnell, told VOA that “US forces conducted a counterterrorism strike June 13 in Kunar province, close to the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which targeted a senior leader of a designated terrorist organisation.”

Pentagon officials, when asked to comment on the VoA report, said they were not yet in a position to confirm if decline if the strike was successful.

The strike comes amid a seven-day ceasefire between the Afghan Taliban and government security forces to allow Afghan citizens to observe the last days of Ramazan and Eid peacefully.

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