DERA ISMAIL KHAN: A US drone attack on a car killed an Al Qaeda ‘commander’, a Taliban trainer and two other militants in Afghanistan’s Paktika province near the border with Pakistan.

Security sources told Dawn on Monday that the US fired two missiles at the car in the Laman area, killing the four militants.

The sources said Qari Yasin, alias Ustad Aslam, hailing from Lodhran in Punjab was considered one of the most important commanders of the local chapter of Al Qaeda.

The other ‘commander’ killed in the attack was identified as Ameen Shah Mahsud of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

He is said to be a TTP trainer of suicide bombers.

A large number of tribesmen displaced from North Waziristan have relocated to the Laman area of Paktika province along the border with South Waziristan.

Our Bahawalpur Correspondent adds: Qari Yasin carried a head money of Rs5 million, a spokesman for the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) said.

The spokesman told Dawn that Qari Yasin was a proclaimed offender and his name was included in the CTD’s Red Book.

He said Yasin had been involved in several high-profile terrorist attacks, including the assassination attempt on former president Gen Pervez Musharraf, attack on the GHQ, attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team and a bomb blast at Data Darbar in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2017