An MQ 9 Reaper Drone, Image Credit: US Air Force/Wikimedia Commons
Mullah Fazlullah, the notorious head of terrorist group TTP, has been killed in a U.S. airstrike on his sanctuary in Kunar province, the Afghan Defense Ministry confirmed Friday.
Afghan Ministry of Defence spokesman Mohammad Radmanish has confirmed that Fazlullah, the butcher from Swat, who had been leading the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan since 2013, died in an American drone strike on Wednesday.
The U.S. forces had conducted the strike in Afghanistan close to the border of Pakistan, targeting the chief of the group, according to U.S. Forces-Afghanistan spokesman Lt. Col. Martin O’Donnell.
Pakistan says Fazlullah Pakistan is responsible for deaths of thousands of innocent Pakistanis. Islamabad had been urging the United States and Afghanistan to eliminate the terror threat who had moved to Afghanistan after a massive Pakistani operation.
Meanwhile, according to a Voice of America report, the fugitive TTP chief was leaving a militant center, known as Pachai Markaz, just before midnight after attending a dinner party along with several key commanders. “Sources say that as soon as Fazlullah boarded the vehicle missiles fired from an unmanned American aircraft hit them.”
According tot he VOA report, the drone attack killed five TTP commanders, including Fazlullah, and hours later fellow militants quietly buried them in a nearby graveyard.
Mullah Fazlullah, a 2014 photo Credit: Salimswati/Wikimedia Commons
The elimination of Fazullah will be a huge confidence building measure with Pakistan and likely push the Afghan reconciliation bid between Kabul and the Afghan Taliban. Last week, the U.S. said it is working with Pakistan, which has some influence over the Afghan Taliban, to help speed up the process of Afghan reconciliation.
Islamabad’s influence over Afghan militant groups goes back to 1980s when, backed by the U.S. and its Western allies, its tribal areas served as a launching pad for the fight against Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and during the 1990s, when Pakistan supported the Afghan Taliban in the country’s deadly civil war.
Fazlullah used radio propaganda to spread terror and his militant messages in Swat Valley, where his followers also attacked the then teenage peace advocate Malala Yousafzai in 2012. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani confirmed the news in calls to Pakistani leaders.
I spoke with Prime Minister of #Pakistan Nasirul Mulk and Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and confirmed the death of Mullah Fazlullah. His death is the result of tireless human intel led by #Afghan security agencies.
— Ashraf Ghani (@ashrafghani) June 15, 2018
A statement by the U.S. Forces-Afghanistan claimed that the strike did not put an ongoing, unilateral ceasefire initiated by the Afghan government at risk.
Mullah Fazlullah’s predecessor Hakimullah Mehsud, was also killed in a U.S. drone strike in northwestern Pakistan.
Known as Mullah Radio, as hardliner militant leader, Fazlullah broadcast fiery sermons and militant ideology via an FM radio station. The station was shut down when he was flushed out of Pakistan.
Fazlullah’s madrasa at Imam Dherai, Swat. Pakistani security forces bombed and destroyed the compound in early June 2009 Credit: Wikipedia
The gunmen killed around 150 people, most of them schoolchildren dead.
Fazlullah had been operating out of Afghanistan for years – making his haven in Kunar province a sore point in relations between Islamabad and Kabul.
In March, the US offered a $5 million reward for information about Mullah Fazlullah’s whereabouts.
