Mohammad Radmanish, a spokesperson for the Afghan Defence Ministry confirmed on Friday that a US drone strike in Afghanistan’s Kunar Province had killed the highly feared Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader Mullah Fazlullah on the 13th of June.
Lieutenant-Colonel Martin O’Donnell, a spokesman for the US forces in Afghanistan, had revealed earlier that the US had conducted the strike close to the Pakistani border against a “senior leader of a designated terrorist organisation.
Radmanish, moreover, confirmed Fazlullah’s death–who was responsible for countless acts of violence across Pakistan–in a conversation with CNN.
Lt. Col O’Donnell, in his own press conference, had not revealed who the target for the drone strike was. A US official speaking anonymously to the Voice of America on Wednesday night, however, revealed that the strike’s intended target was Fazlullah.
The drone strike also comes just when a ceasefire between the Afghan government and the Afghan Taliban is coming into effect. The ceasefire was a welcome break for Afghans who have witnessed tremendous violence throughout the protracted conflict.
General John Nicholson, the commander of the US Forces Afghanistan and the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission, however, had stated that the ceasefire did not include America’s counter-terrorism operations against other terror groups.