KABUL: Two top Al Qaeda leaders in Afghanis­tan were killed in a US drone attack, the country’s spy agency confirmed on Thursday.

Washington said the strikes on Sunday targeted Farouq al-Qahtani, Al Qaeda’s emir for north-eastern Afghanistan, and his deputy Bilal al-Utabi, calling it the most significant attack against the group’s leadership in several years.

Multiple Hellfire missiles “levelled” two compounds in Kunar province where the men were believed to be hiding, US officials said on Wednesday, without confirming if the strikes were successful.

Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security offered confirmation of their death on Thursday, adding that a third senior member of the group had also been killed.

“The attack was carried out in coordination with NDS,” the spy agency said in a statement, without naming the third leader.

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook had earlier said their demise would deal a blow to the militant group’s presence in Afghanistan.

“Eliminating these core leaders of Al Qaeda will disrupt efforts to plot against the United States and our allies, reduce the threat to our Afghan partners, and assist their efforts to deny Al Qaeda safe haven in Afghanistan,” Cook said.

The Pentagon had been actively hunting Qahtani for four years. He had longstanding ties with Osama Bin Laden before the latter’s death in 2011.

Qahtani had operated in Afghanistan since at least 2009 and was responsible for planning attacks against US and coalition forces in the country, officials said.

“He was seeking to re-establish [Al Qaeda’s] control in Afghanistan,” a US official said. “He was charged with the task of establishing AQ safe havens throughout Kunar and Nuristan provinces.” His deputy Utabi, was seen as the second- or third-most senior Al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan, the official said.

Qahtani and his deputies were in Hilgal village in Kunar’s Ghazi Abad district when they were attacked, US officials said. They were in two separate buildings a few hundred metres apart and were targeted almost simultaneously by multiple missiles.

Provincial spokesman Abdul Ghani Mosamem said at least 15 militants were killed, including two Arabs. A number of Pakistani Taliban fighters were among those killed, he said.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2016