U.S. drone strikes killed eight suspected militants in Pakistan on Saturday, including Sheikh Imran Ali Siddiqi, a senior figure of the newly created Indian branch of Al-Qaeda, Pakistan’s The Express Tribune reported.
The daily quoted tribal sources as saying one drone had struck a compound in Chancharano Kandaw of Tirah Valley, in the northeastern Khyber Agency Saturday afternoon.
The attack damaged several portions of the compound and left at least four dead and wounded two others, the daily said.
Siddiqi, who last month was announced as a senior member of Al-Qaeda’s newly formed branch in the Indian subcontinent, was reportedly among the dead, the newspaper said.
The branch’s purported spokesperson, Osama Mehmood, also confirmed the death, the daily said.
A second U.S. drone strike in the North Waziristan killed four suspected militants, including an important Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP; Pakistani Taliban) commander, the daily said.
It quoted an official as saying the U.S. drones had fired two missiles at a vehicle in the Margha area of Shawal which burst into flames. Four suspected militants in the car were killed while another was wounded, the official said.
The official named Muhammad Mustafa, a TTP commander, as among the dead. The others were foreigners, the official said.
