Senior Taliban leader presumed dead in US drone strike

Islamabad Oct 19 (IANS) A senior Pakistani Taliban leader Omar Khalid Khorasani is presumed dead in recent air strikes on the Afghan side of the border local media and the militant sources said late on Wednesday.

However Khorasani s Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (TTP JuA) has not commented on the reports.

Ahrar is blamed for many 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 with the leadership.

Pakistan Army said 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 about 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.

TV channels quoted security sources as saying that Khorasani was also killed in the operations on the Afghan side of the border.

Pakistan officials have not offered any comments.

--IANS
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