U.S. Hits Pakistani Taliban Training Camp in Eastern Afghanistan

The U.S. military is reported to have struck a training camp in Afghanistan’s remote eastern province of Kunar that was run by the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan (TTP) earlier today. The son of Mullah Fazlullah, the emir of the TTP, and two commanders, including the camp’s trainer of suicide bombers, are reported to have been killed.

In addition to Fazlullah’s son, the U.S. also killed Gul Mohammad, the chief of the TPP in Bajaur and the leader of camp in Bajaur, and Ustad Yaseen, who trained TTP recruits to serve as suicide bombers.

The U.S. military has not commented on the strike. U.S. warplanes occasionally target jihadists of all stripes in Afghanistan.

The most recent instance took place in early Feb., when the U.S. targeted Taliban training camps in the far-flung northeastern province of Badakhshan. The camps were used by the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, a terrorist group that is closely allied with al Qaeda, and other terrorist groups.

The TTP not only battles the Pakistani state in the tribal areas and beyond, but it also aids the Afghan Taliban in its fight against the government and U.S. military.

Pakistani government and military officials often accuse the U.S. and Afghan government of sheltering the TTP. This is done to deflect criticism of its support for the Afghan Taliban and other terrorist groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba.

However, the U.S. has killed far more TTP leaders, commanders, and operatives in its drone campaign inside Pakistan. The first two emirs of the TTP, Baitullah Mehsud and Hakeemullah Mehsud, were killed by U.S. drones. Yet the Pakistani government has criticized these strikes and others as violations of its sovereignty.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

This article appeared originally at FDD's Long War Journal.