The drone strike targeted the hideout of Pakistani militants in Afghanistan, another Pakistani official said.
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Mansour is believed to have planned the December 16, 2014, massacre in which 122 students and 22 teachers and staff members were killed.
A US airstrike near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan killed the mastermind of a 2014 attack on a Pakistani school that killed some 150 people, mainly children, American and Pakistani officials said Wednesday.
“What we have is pretty credible”, the official said. However, Saifullah’s death is yet to be confirmed.
Qari Saifullah was in charge of Taliban suicide bombers.
Naray was designated as a global terrorist by the US State Department on 25 May which paved the way for his inclusion on the hit-list.
The State Department’s announcement came four days after a drone strike killed Afghan Taliban leader Akhtar Mansour in Balochistan on 21 May. If true, his death would be a severe blow to the terror group as Mansour was regarded as a major threat. A security official at the time had denied there was any quid pro quo between the two countries.
Mansour and Saifullah belonged to Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) Tariq Geedar group and used to operate in Peshawar and adjoining Frontier Region Peshawar and Darra Adamkhel.
Umar Mansoor claimed responsibility for planning the attack as well as a separate attack on Bacha Khan University in Charsadda on January 20 this year, in which 22 people, a lot of them students and teachers, were killed.
In his statement, Cook said the successful attack underscored what he called common security interests shared with Pakistan and Afghanistan.
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Mansour later fled to Afghanistan after a military operation in the Khyber tribal region.
