Afghan official: US drone kills Pakistan Taliban chief

FILE - In this file image made from video broadcast on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013, undated footage of Mullah Fazlullah is shown on a projector in Pakistan. An Afghan defense ministry official says Friday, June 15, 2018 a US drone strike in northeastern Kunar province killed Pakistan Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah. Pakistan has been hunting Fazlullah for several years and has repeatedly said he was plotting attacks on Pakistan from safe havens in Afghanistan. (AP Photo via AP Video, File)

KABUL – An Afghan Defence Ministry official says a U.S. drone strike in northeastern Kunar province has killed Pakistan Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah.

Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish tells The Associated Press in a telephone interview Friday that Fazlullah and two other insurgents were killed early Thursday morning.

According to a statement attributed to U.S. Forces-Afghanistan spokesman, Lt. Col Martin O’Donnell, the U.S. carried out a “counterterrorism strike” Thursday near in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan targeting “a senior leader of a designated terrorist organization.”

The statement did not say whether the strike had killed anyone and did not identify Fazlullah as the target.

Radmanish said the attack took place in Marawara district, near the border.