Suspected US drone kills 2 Haqqani network militants in Pak

A suspected US drone attack on a house in northwestern Pakistan killed two militants from the Afghan Taliban-allied Haqqani network. As per reports, two missiles hit a house and killed militants Ahsan Khorai and Nasir Mehmood in the village of Dapa Mamozai in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), according to a police officer and an intelligence official.

There has been a slight uptick in US drone strikes inside Pakistan in the mountainous border regions bordering Afghanistan since US President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, though they are a long way off their peak in 2010.

Trump has taken a hardline stance on Pakistan, which he says provides safe haven to high-level commanders from the Haqqani network, a group which often conducts deadly attacks in Afghanistan.

Relations between Washington and Islamabad have frayed over the past month in the wake of Trump’s angry tweet on January 1 about Pakistan’s “lies and deceit” over its alleged support for the Afghan Taliban and their allies. The United States this month also suspended military assistance worth about $2 billion.

Islamabad denies sheltering militants and accuses Washington of not respecting Pakistan’s vast sacrifices in the war on militancy.