Pakistan Taliban Chief Survives Drone Attack

Islamabad: The Chief of Pakistan
Taliban Mullah Fazlullah narrowly
escaped a US drone strike in the
border region of Afghanistan in
which five militants were killed,
officials said today.

The chief of outlawed Tehreek-i-
Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was in Nazyan village of Nangarhar province of Afghanistan near Pakistan border when a drone targeted him last night.

The CIA-operated unmanned aircraft
fired four missiles on a compound in
the village, security official said,
adding at least five Pakistani and
Afghan militants were killed in the
attack but Fazlullah escaped unhurt.
Pakistan believes Fazlullah is hiding
in Afghanistan since he escaped a
military operation by army troops in
his native Swat valley in 2009 and
has demanded his repatriation.

Pakistan has also blamed Fazlullah of.sending militants to their country
from his sanctuaries in Afghanistan.
Fazlullah became the chief of TTP last year after his predecessor Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone attack last year.

So far two TTP chiefs, including the
dreaded Baituallah Mehsud, have
been killed in the US drone attacks.

Pakistan is fighting the Taliban in its
northwest tribal areas and so far
more than 1,200 militants have been
killed in the operation Zarb-e-Azb,
launched in June this year, to flush
out local and foreign militants from
the region.