At least six suspected militants were killed in a US drone strike in Renay-Parchao area of Afghanistan bordering Khyber Agency on Tuesday.
Renay-Parchao is a small village in Afghanistan on the bank of the Kabul River just across the Pakistani border in Loe Shalman area in Khyber’s Landi Kotal subdivision.
Pakistani intelligence sources said that the US drone fired two missiles targeting militants in two pick-up trucks, destroying them completely. Scores of others were also injured in the drone attack, they said.
The identity of the militants is yet to be ascertained, but sources said that the dead included “some key militants belonging to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Swat chapter”.
The attack comes a day after Afghan officials said a separate US drone strike killed five insurgents, including three Taliban commanders, in Shirzad district of Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan.
Last week, Mullah Fazlullah, the chief of the TTP, escaped a US drone strike in Nazyan village of Nangarhar.
Intelligence sources said that the US drone fired four missiles on a compound close to the Pakistan-Afghan border on reports that the militant chief was in the area.
The strike left at least five Pakistani and Afghan militants dead, but Fazlullah was reported to have narrowly escaped the attack.
There was no confirmation of Tuesday’s drone strike from either the Afghan government or the CIA, which allegedly operates drone operations along the Pakistan-Afghan border.