Pakistan Taliban confirms US drone kills leader

Islamabad, Oct 20 (IANS) A Pakistani Taliban group on Thursday confirmed that its leader Omar Khalid Khorasani has been killed in a recent US drone strike on the Afghan side of the border.

Asad Mansoor, spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (TTP JuA), told the media that Khorasani has died of wounds after he was injured in a drone strike in Paktiya province on Tuesday.

JuA is blamed for a large number of deadliest terrorist attacks in Pakistan in recent years that killed many people.

Khorasani, whose real name was Abdul Wali, had parted ways with the main Taliban faction in 2014 over serious differences over the leadership.

Reports also suggested that the group's central council has nominated Asad Afridi as its new leader.

Some reports also said that Khorasani was killed earlier in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, where the group is believed to have established its bases.

The United States has increased air strikes in Afghanistan after President Donald Trump unveiled his strategy for Afghanistan and South Asia in August.

Pakistan army also confirmed on Tuesday that military operations were conducted in Afghanistan's eastern Khost and Paktiya provinces over the past few days by the Resolute Support Mission (RSM) and Afghan Forces, opposite to Pakistan Kurram Agency, with reports of "heavy losses to terrorists".

The army did not identify those killed in the operations but said "coordination between the forces of Pakistan and Afghanistan has enhanced" after the army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa's visit to Afghanistan on October 1.

In July The UN Security Council's Sanctions Committee approved the addition of JuA in the list of entities and individuals subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo.

"Pakistan had proposed this listing," the Foreign Ministry had stated after the UN slapped curbs on the outfit.

(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)