A US drone strike along the Pakistan-Afghan border killed a commander of the Haqqani Network, Pakistani officials and members of the group have said. However there is some disagreement over on which side of the border it fell.

The commander was identified by the sources as Jamiuddin or Jamil ud Din. A senior member of Haqqani Network told Reuters: “Maulvi Jamiuddin was our trusted man. He was part of our organisation and used to facilitate our fighters during their movement inside Afghanistan.” 

An eyewitness and members of the group placed the attack in Pakistan. The eyewitness, identified as Rehmanullah, said he saw the strike hit near the Mata Sanghar area of Kurram agency. “I saw two missiles hit the vehicle and the people inside were killed,” he told Reuters by telephone. Dawn reported that a missile had hit a compound in  the same area on December 18,  but said no casualties were reported. 

The senior member of Haqqani Network said Jamiuddin had been traveling in his car in Pakistan’s Kurram region, but said only he had been killed. “Jamiuddin stopped the car ... for conversation on his cellular phone when the drone fired two missiles and killed him on the spot,” another Haqqani member told Reuters.  

However officials of the Kurram political administration told MENAFN the strike was carried out inside Afghanistan. The news site reported their sources saying three people had been killed in the strike, which they located somewhere between Pakistan's Mata Sangar territory and Afghanistan's Maqbal area. This contradicts Kurram officials reported in RFE, who said the strike hit also in Mata Sanghar. 

A Pakistani official who spoke to Reuters also said he was unclear on what side of the border the strike took place. 

Due to the confusion over which side of the border the strike hit, we have recorded this as a possible strike in both our Pakistan and Afghan timelines. October saw a number of similar strikes which could not be placed 

Type of strike: Possible US strike
Location: Afghan-Pakistan border
References: RFE/RFL, Reuters, Dawn, MENAFN 

A drone strike hit near the Afghan border in Pakistan's Kurram Agency, according to multiple sources in Pakistan, although an Afghan official has claimed it hit on the Afghan side of the border.

Two Pakistani intelligence officials and a local government officer told Reuters a drone dropped two missiles on a compound housing fighters under the command of Abdur Rasheed Haqqani, described as a a senior network commander. Local news agencies reported Rasheed was a Taliban commander. 

Pakistani officials told AP three people were killed, but said they were unsure if Rasheed was in the compound at the time. They placed the compound on the Pesho Ghar mountain in the Kurram tribal region's Ghuzgari area. Meanwhile, officials told Reuters four people were killed, but said they could also not confirm Rasheed's death. 

Villagers initially reported a blast in the Upper Kurram area to authorities, one of the officials told Reuters. The official said an informant later said that it was US drone strike. Geo News said the attack took place at around 0400 local time. 

However, Abdullah Asrat, spokesperson for the governor of Paktia province, told AP the strike hit Afghan soil. Paktia borders Kurram Agency. In October, a number of strikes were reported on the Afghan-Pakistan border, with different sources saying it hit on different sides of the border. Asrat said seven fighters were killed, including two commanders, and another two were injured.  

Due the lack of clarity over what side of the border the strike hit, we have recorded this strike as a "C" strike in both our Afghanistan and Pakistan timelines - a placeholder that is not included in the strike and casualty tally.

• Type of strike: Possible US strike
• Location: Afghan-Pakistan border
• References: Geo News, AP, Reuters, Pakistan Today, The News 

The Times reported one named resident saying 60 missiles had hit Kurram Agency in the course of the month. However, no other information has surfaced suggesting this volume of strikes has hit the area. 

“The drone strikes have increased significantly since the start of October. Drones fired around 60 missiles,” Sajad Parachi, a Kurram resident, told The Times. One of these attacks killed five members of the Haqqani Network, he said. 

We have recorded them here as "C" strikes - a placeholder that is not included in the strike and casualty tally.

• Type of strike: Possible US strikes
• Location: Kurram Agency
• References: The Times

Two possible drones strikes were reported to have hit on the Afghan-Pakistan border, but, like a strike reportedly carried out the day before, it was unclear on what side of the border they fell. 

“Four unmanned drones fired six missiles in Monday’s (October 16) attack, and four more were dropped in two strikes on Tuesday (October 17),” Baseer Khan Wazir, the top administrative official in the Kurram Agency told Reuters. “Twenty people were killed yesterday, mostly from the Afghan Taliban, and 11 more were killed in today’s attacks.” He said all three took place on the Afghan side. The Inter-Services Public Relations, the media wing of the Pakistan Armed Forces, has said the strikes occurred in Afghanistan. 

Taliban sources allegedly said six members of the Pakistan-linked Haqqani Network were killed in one of the attacks. 

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 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 strikes 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.

While the US confirmed carrying out strikes close to the border but on the Afghan side in the entry below, they did not confirm the same for this particular incident. We have recorded this strike as a "C" strike in both our Afghanistan and Pakistan timelines - a placeholder that is not included in the strike and casualty tally.

• Type of strike: Possible US air or drone strike
• Location: Afghan-Pakistan border
• References: US Forces - Afghanistan, Reuters, ISPR, Geo News, Xinhua, ARY News, Dawn, Anadolu Agency, The Express Tribune, Reuters 

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.

• Type of strike: Possible US strike
• Location: Afghan-Pakistan border 
• References: US Forces - Afghanistan via email, Geo News, The Nation, AP, AP, Xinhua, Pakistan Observer, The Express Tribune, Reuters, FDD's Long War Journal, AFP, ISPR, Geo News, Xinhua, ARY News, Dawn, Anadolu Agency, The Express Tribune, Reuters 

A US drone strike hit Pakistan's Kurram Agency killing at least three alleged fighters, according to government and security officials as well as tribal sources.

Baseer Khan Wazir, the most senior administrator in Kurram Agency, told Reuters the strike hit close to the border with Afghanistan. Pakistani officials told AFP it was carried out in Ghuz Ghari village, which they also placed close to the border. Kurram Agency is in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. 

Wazir said two missiles were dropped on the home of Maulvi Mohib, killing three people. Tribal sources described Mohab as a local religious cleric who was a Haqqani Network "loyalist". Two Afghan Taliban sources told Reuters he was affiliated with the group, although one senior member said he was not a prominent figure in it.

The strike was aimed at a compound where five Afghan Taliban fighters had gathered, according to the officials speaking to AFP. Three of those were killed, while two others were wounded, one of the more senior of the officials said. This was confirmed by two other mid-level government officials, it said. Unnamed security officials told Dawn that while three people had been killed, only one was injured.  

The CIA declined to comment when asked if they had carried out a strike, a position it routinely takes. 

The strike is the first reported since President Trump announced his new strategy for Afghanistan in a speech last month. In it he vowed to "no longer be silent about Pakistan’s safe havens for terrorist organisations”, sparking concerns the drone war in the country may escalate.

For more context on the strike, see here.

• Type of strike: US drone strike
• Location: Ghuz Ghari village, Kurram Agency
• References: AFP, Dawn, Reuters, VOA, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, CIA spokesperson via email 

A Pakistani newspaper reported a CIA drone strike killed four Islamic State fighters in South Waziristan hours before a US Senate delegation visited the tribal agency.

The drone fired two missiles at a vehicle carrying Pir Agha, an Islamic State commander, and three other men traveling through Marghalan village. Later the same day, a bipartisan delegation of US Senators visited Wana, the capital of South Waizirstan, with Pakistani military brass.

The strike was vaguely sourced, attributed to "sources", and will be recorded here as a "C" strike - a placeholder that is not included in the strike and casualty tally at the top of the page until more information that is forthcoming.

• Location: Marghalan village, South Waziristan
• References: Dawn

A drone strike in Pakistan killed a Haqqani network commander named Abu Bakar, according to Pakistani intelligence, security and police officials, alongside local residents. 

The strike provoked criticism from Pakistan's military chief, General Qamar Bajwa. While not directly mentioning the attack, a day after it happened he reportedly called on the US to share "actionable intelligence" with Islamabad and said unilateral actions, like drone strikes, are "counterproductive and against the spirit of ongoing cooperation and intelligence sharing being diligently undertaken by Pakistan".  

A Pentagon spokesman however told VOA that the US Department of Defence had not carried out any recent strikes in Pakistan. Nearly all strikes in the country have been carried out by the CIA, which routinely refuses to comment. 

While media reports all reported Bakar's death, they differed on the total casualty count. 

A police officer told DPA no other people had been hurt in the attack because Abu Bakar had been alone at the time. However, a resident of Dewal village said three more people were injured in the strike, including a boy.

The Express Tribune reported two "foot soldiers" of the group were killed alongside Abu Bakar. AP said he was killed alongside an aide. Dawn also reported the death of one other person. 

Almost all reporting says the strike hit a house which Bakar was using as a hideout, however where this may be differs in much of the media reporting. 

A security official told DPA two missiles hit the house in the Pakistani town of Hangu. A security official told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty it took place in Speen Tal. There appears to be a Spin Thal on maps, but this is in Hangu district, not in Hangu town. 

The Express Tribune and Dawn both reported the strike took place in Speen Tal, which the former spells as Spin Thall and says borders Hangu district. Spin Thal falls very near Hangu district's border with the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan (FATA). 

Pakistani intelligence officials told AP that two missiles hit a house in a village five kilometers south of Thal city. Thal city falls in Hangu district and lies close to the border with FATA. It is also very close to Spin Thal. 

92 News said the attack took place along the border areas between Hangu and Orakzai. The news site reported Shaukat Bukhari, described as a deputy superintendent of police, confirming a drone strike in Orakzai Agency.

Orakzai Agency is one of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, while Hangu district is in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Hangu district borders Orakzai Agency, alongside Kurram Agency and North Waziristan, all part of FATA.

If the strike hit in Hangu, it will be only the third strike carried out in the so-called settled areas of Pakistan, according to our data.

Reports also differed when it came to the time of the strike. Security officials in RFE/RL said it took place overnight. A police officer told DPA it occurred at dawn, while The Express Tribune reported it as a pre-dawn attack. Security sources told DAWN the strike took place on the night of June 12. 

The Afghan intelligence agency has blamed the Haqqani network for the deadly truck bombing in Kabul's diplomatic quarter on May 31. Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of Haqqani network, however denied any involvement in an audio message released on June 11.

• Type of strike: US air or drone strike
• Location: Hangu district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
• References: DPA, 92 News, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Khaama Press, DAWN, The Express Tribune, AP, VOA 

Reports surfaced of a US drone strike in Pakistan's North Waziristan in the afternoon of May 24.

The strike hit a compound at 12pm local time, according to a statement from the Pakistan Taliban (TTP), described as a military compound by The Nation. 

The Nation said two missiles were fired at the compound, allegedly located in Garvik area, Shawal Tehsil, North Waziristan. 

"Official sources" told The News International that the strike hit a house. 

The TTP later announced the deaths of two followers of its emir for North Waziristan, commander Akhtar Muhammad Khalil. One of the men was known as Abdullah, described by the group as "a great master in electronics.”

The Nation and News International said three fighters had been killed, both identified one as Abdullah Kashmiri. 

Kamran Afridi, an official in the Pakistani border town of Miran Shah, told AP that a strike hit a compound and killed three TTP members, but said it hit just across the border in the village of Gurowek in Afghanistan's Khost province.

However, a spokesperson for Resolute Support said they had not conducted any strikes in Khost or Paktika in that timeframe, the two Afghan provinces that border Pakistan. The spokesperson would however not comment on anything outside of Afghanistan. US Central Command referred us to the same comment from Resolute Support. 

The CIA refused to comment when contacted by the Bureau, a position it routinely takes.

This is the third drone strike in Pakistan this year, the same number of strikes carried out during the entire of 2016. 

• Type of strike: US drone strike 
• Location: North Waziristan 
• References: Anadolu Agency, The News International, AP, US Forces – Afghanistan via email, CIA via email, US Central Command via email, The Nation, FDD's Long War Journal   

CIA drones killed seven or eight members of the Pakistan Taliban, or TTP, according to a senior regional official.

North Waziristan's political agent, Kamran Afridi, told Reuters it was a drone strike.

Political agents, senior officials in charge of Pakistan's tribal agencies, in the past have kept extensive records of US drone attacks and the names of the people killed and injured.

Afridi named Abdur Rahman among the dead. Rahman, a senior TTP commander, was said to have been killed by "several other militant sources," Reuters reported.

Unnamed government and security officials told international news agencies that a drone strike hit in North Waziristan late at night on Wednesday local time.

"We have received reports of a drone attack in North Waziristan in which some seven militants have been killed," a security official told AFP.

A local tribal leader, Malik Waheedullah, told Reuters he watched two missiles hit a house in the mountains. The building caught fire he said, adding: "I drove away as fast as I could."

Three civilian "labourers" were also killed in the attack, Abdullah Wazirstani, spokesman for North Waziristan Taliban, told Reuters.

An unnamed Pakistani intelligence official reportedly told Anadolu Agency that Abdul Raheem had been killed, described as an "important commander of al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan". The report has used figures attributed to the Bureau that are not accurate.  

This was only the second US strike in Pakistan of the Trump presidency. It was the first strike in North Waziristan for more than a year.

The CIA, which carried out all but one of the 426 strikes so far in Pakistan, declined comment on this operation.

• Location: Zuwai village, North Waziristan
• References: Associated Press, Reuters, Reuters, AFP, Anadolu Agency, Anadolu Agency

A US drone strike killed two men in the tribal area of Kurram, which lies on the border with Afghanistan, according to multiple sources. 

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." 

Three intelligence officials told AP that a suspected US drone strike hit Kurram agency killing two men whose identity they did not know. 

Geo News reported "officials of the political administration" saying a drone strike hit an area of Lower Kurram Agency and killed two people. 

Tribal sources in Pakistan identified one of the men killed as Qari Abdullah Sabari, a commander of the Afghan Taliban, and the second man as Shakir, an Afghan national, according to The News. Two missiles reportedly struck their motorcycle in Sra Ghundai area. 

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, while the CIA declined to comment. 

The last strike in Pakistan took place in May 21 last year, killing the leader of the Afghan Taliban. 

Additional information and context on the latest strike can be found here. 

• Type of strike: US drone strike 
• Location: Kurram Agency
• References: AFP, Reuters, GEO News, US Central Command via email, CIA via email, Resolute Support via email, AP, The News, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism