(Previous Incident Code: T001 )

A suspected US drone strike killed two men in the tribal area of Kurram, which lies on the border with Afghanistan, according to multiple sources. The status of at one of those killed is not clearly determined. Tribal sources in Pakistan identify the first man as Qari Abdullah Sabari, a commander of the AfghanTaliban, and the second man as Shakir, an Afghan national, whose combat status is not determined, according to ‘The NEws’. Haji Zamin Hussain, a local elder said, “A drone missile struck the motorcycle which caught on fire and then exploded.” Two missiles reportedly struck their motorcycle in Sra Ghundai or Sra Ghwarga area. ‘AFP’ marks down the two men as ‘militants’, whilst the rest of the sources state that there was unclarity over who was been targeted. The Taliban placed the death toll to three and referred to the commander as Qari Abdullah Mairaj, according to UPI. However,Intelligence officials in Pakistan previously said an airstrike on Thursday killed at least two suspected militants. The Taliban did not confirm it was the same airstrike that killed Abdullah.

A local government official told Reuters that the drone strike hit a Pakistani village near the border with Afghanistan in Kurram Agency. A village elder said: “A drone missile struck the motorcycle which caught fire and then exploded.”

Geo News reported “officials of the political administration” saying a drone strike hit an area of Lower Kurram Agency.

A Taliban official said that Qari Abdullah, described as a top Haqqani Network commander who accompanied US Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl when he was handed over to US authorities in 2014, died in a strike. This is the same name given by the tribal sources in The News, but the Taliban commander said the strike that killed Qari Abdullah took place in the “area of Khost”, which is in Afghanistan. He would not confirm if it was the same strike.

However, a Resolute Support spokesperson said that US forces had not conducted any strikes in Khost in the time frame. US Central Command, the American military command responsible for the region, denied conducting the strike. Whereas, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the strike as a US violation against human rights and a direct breach against Pakistan’s sovereignty.