Blast kills another TTP leader in Afghanistan

PESHAWAR: A senior Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander was killed by a bomb in eastern Afghanistan, militant and intelligence sources told AFP on Thursday, the latest such incident to target the group in recent days.

Sheharyar Mehsud, chief of a militant faction which is part of the umbrella TTP, was the target of the remote-controlled blast in Kunar province, a TTP commander in Pakistan told AFP.

A Pakistani intelligence official who confirmed the incidentsaid Mehsud had fled to Afghanistan in 2016. The blast comes nearly two weeks after two other key TTP leaders—Khalid Haqqani and Qari Saifullah Peshawari—were killed in a clash with security forces. It was not immediately clear who was behind the killings.

They have come as the US and the Afghan Taliban—which is separate from the TTP—appear close to a breakthrough on a deal for an American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. Islamabad has helped to facilitate the gruelling talks, which have stretched over more than a year.