Pak denies reports of US drone attacks

Islamabad: Pakistan today rejected reports about US drone attacks in its territory along the Afghan border, claiming that the strikes targeted militants in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials said 31 people, mostly militants, were killed in four drone attacks in the Paktia province of Afghanistan, last evening.

There was confusion as the hideouts targeted were close to Pakistan’s Kurram tribal district along the border and some media reports said some of the missiles hit targets on the Pakistani side.

Pakistani military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor rejected these reports.

“Reports of drone strikes carried out in Kurram Agency are baseless,” he said.

He said that NATO’s Resolute Support Mission (RSM) was conduction operations against militants in Khost and Paktia provinces of Afghanistan.

“As a follow-up of the (Pakistan) army chief’s visit to Afghanistan, the coordination between the forces has been enhanced. RSM timely shared details about the said operation within Afghan territory,” the army said.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif also said that drones hit targets on the Afghan side of the border.

He said the confusion was due to poor demarcation of the border in the mountainous region.

Officials said the Haqqani network was the target of the attacks and several militants linked with the group were killed.