(Previous Incident Code: T005c )

Multiple sources have said a drone strike hit Pakistan, however there is some confusion over whether it took place just across the border in Afghanistan.

A US spokesperson confirmed that US forces carried out counter-terrorism strikes during operations in Jaji Maidan district in Afghanistan’s Paktia province. The area in which the US carried out the strikes borders Pakistan’s Kurram Agency, which is where some sources placed the attack.

Pakistan intelligence sources put the location of the attack in Mukbal area, in the Kurram tribal region of the country. Meanwhile a local official said the attack occurred in Hangu, which they said was part of Pakistan’s border region with Afghanistan. Hangu district appears to be in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which borders Kurram Agency, alongside Orakzai Agency and North Waziristan, all part of FATA, but falls itself in the so-called “settled areas”. Hangu town is the administrative centre of the district.

However, both a Pakistan government official and the local administration of Kurram Agency have reportedly said it is not clear if the compound was on Pakistan territory. Two government officials told AFP part of the compound was in Afghan territory. One said the missiles fell in mountainous terrain very close to the porous border with Afghanistan. A security official in Pakistan told Express Tribune one strike hit around 17:37 (local time) along the Kurram border and a second ten minutes later opposite Lower Kurram. The official stressed that both took place in Afghanistan, with only the sounds of the strikes audible in Pakistan. The Inter-Sevices Public Relations, the media wing of the Pakistan Armed Forces, has also said the strikes occurred in Afghanistan.

Most sources indicate a house or compound was hit, with reports of more than one drone and multiple missiles being fired at the target.

Different sources provided different casualty figures. Reuters reported a Taliban source – who claimed six missiles targeted two or three compounds of mud-huts being used by the fighters – saying at least five members of the Haqqani Network were killed and eight others injured. Local sources, according to the Express Tribune, put the death toll at at least 17, with the house struck belonging to a Saeed Karim. Two Pakistan intelligence officials first told AP five Haqqani Network fighters were killed, including a commander they identified as Sangeen Wali, but said that a later search of the compound found a further 15 bodies. A senior government official in Pakistan told AFP one drone fired a missile killing five fighters, and a second drone fired a further two missiles targeting militants who arrived to retrieve the bodies – a total of 26 bodies had so far been found, he said.

One Pakistani official told AFP that the target of the strike was “Abu Bakar”, a Haqqani Network commander. However, on June 13 he was reported killed in a drone strike. Baseer Khan Wazir, the most senior administrator in Kurram Agency, said a Taliban hideout was hit.

The day after, reports of further strikes near the Afghan-Pakistan border surfaced. Various news sites began to report the alleged deaths of two key commanders, but there was much confusion in the reporting. ARY News, Xinhua and Anadolu, for example, reported the death of Umar Mansoor also known as Khalifa Mansour and Umar Naray, a TTP commander believed to have masterminded the 2014 attack on the Army Public School which killed mostly children. But, Geo News reported Umar Khalid Khurasani, the chief of Jamaat ul Ahrar (JuA), had died. A JuA spokesperson confirmed his death to Reuters, saying he was wounded in a recent US drone strike in Afghanistan’s Paktia province and died from these injuries on October 18. At least nine close associates of his were also killed, the spokesperson said.

Some of confusion could stem from the TTP’s announcement of Umar Mansoor’s death and his replacement shortly after the border strikes. However it seems the TTP statement didn’t give details of how and when Mansoor died. It may be some media linked his death with the strike due to the timing of the announcement. The Pentagon confirmed his death in July last year in a US strike. In the entry in our database back then, we have another of his alias as Khalid Khurasani, further confusing things. The Express Tribune suggests the announcement could have been prompted by images of the commander’s body circulating on social media a few days prior.

As strikes were confirmed by the US in Paktia, we have included them in our Afghanistan database. We cannot be sure that the reporting above is referring to the same attack. Therefor this information is also included in here in our Pakistan timeline, but it will be recorded as a “C” strike – a placeholder that is not included in the strike and casualty tally.