for-phone-onlyfor-tablet-portrait-upfor-tablet-landscape-upfor-desktop-upfor-wide-desktop-up

Suspected U.S. drone strike kills two in Pakistan near Afghan border: village elder

KURRAM AGENCY, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suspected U.S. drone strike killed two men on Thursday in a Pakistani village near the Afghanistan border, a local government official and a village elder said.

U.S. drone attacks inside Pakistan have become rare over the past few years and the latest strike, if confirmed, would be the first such attack inside the nuclear-armed nation since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January.

The missile struck two men riding a motorcycle in Pakistan’s northern Kurram Agency, part of the country’s lawless tribal areas said to be home to militants from both the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban as well as al Qaeda.

It was not clear who was being targeted, the official said.

“A drone missile struck the motorcycle which caught fire and then exploded,” said village elder Haji Zamin Hussain.

Pakistan’s foreign office spokesman could not be reached for comment.

In its last high-profile drone attack inside Pakistan, the United States in May killed Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Baluchistan.

Reporting by Javed Hussain, Writing by Saad Sayeed; editing by Drazen Jorgic

for-phone-onlyfor-tablet-portrait-upfor-tablet-landscape-upfor-desktop-upfor-wide-desktop-up