Blast kills another Pakistani Taliban leader in Afghanistan

A senior Pakistani Taliban commander was killed by a bomb in eastern Afghanistan, militant and intelligence sources said 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 Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP, or Pakistani Taliban), 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 incident said 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 grueling talks, which have stretched over more than a year. Pakistan was one of only three countries to recognize the Afghan Taliban regime, and its shadowy military establishment -- particularly the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) -- is widely believed to back the bloody insurgency in Afghanistan. Islamabad denies the accusation.

Pakistan has been battling a homegrown Islamist insurgency for over a decade, with thousands of civilians and security personnel dying in extremist attacks, especially after the TTP began their campaign of violence in 2007. But overall levels of extremist-linked violence have dropped dramatically in recent years, with 2019 seeing the fewest deaths since 2007 -- the year the TTP was formed.