Taliban Commander In Pakistan Killed By US Drone Strike

The commander of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the largest and deadliest militant umbrella organization in Pakistan, has been reportedly killed in a US drone strike in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday night.

In a statement, the TTP Dawar group said Monday that the drone targeted a compound in the eastern Khost province of Afghanistan late Sunday night and killed its key militant commander  Maqbool Dawar, his brother Murad Ali and two other militants, Anadolu agency reports.

However, no officials claims have been made by the US.

Dawar is the third key militant leader of TTP Pakistan reported killed in U.S. drone strikes in Afghanistan in the last two weeks.

On Oct. 18, Umar Mansoor, who was reportedly the mastermind behind the 2014 massacre at the Army Public School in Peshawar, which claimed the lives of more than 140 people, a majority of them children, was killed.

According to Pakistani media, the head of another TTP faction -- Omar Khalid Khorasani of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar -- was also killed in the recent drone strikes in Afghanistan. Neither the splinter group nor the Pakistani army officially confirmed the development.

Pakistan's army began hunting various militant groups in the semi-autonomous regions along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), in 2002.