ISLAMABAD (AP) - The Latest on Pakistan (all times local):
5:05 p.m.
Two Pakistani intelligence officials say an overnight suspected U.S. drone strike has killed seven militants in a tribal region near the Afghan border.
The officials said Wednesday’s strike in Zuwai village in North Waziristan was the first since 2014 when the Pakistan army launched a major military operation there. The officials said Thursday no high value militant was killed in the strike.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to media on the record.
Pakistan’s tribal regions have been the scene of CIA drone strikes and Pakistani operations, forcing militants to flee toward Afghanistan and set up sanctuaries there.
- By Munir Ahmed in Islamabad
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11:40 a.m.
The spokesman for a key militant group says Pakistan’s intelligence service is using a captured militant leader to give the impression that his group is being funded by foreign spy agencies for attacks in Pakistan.
Mohammad Khurasani’s comments come after the Pakistani army released a video of Ahsanullah Ahsan in which the ex-spokesman of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan says he surrendered after seeing his leaders getting help from Indian and Afghan intelligence services to orchestrate attacks in Pakistan.
Khurasani says Pakistan’s Inter-Services-Intelligence is using a “prisoner” for propaganda against them.
Scores of attacks claimed by Ahsan in the past include the 2012 gun attack on teenage Nobel prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in Pakistan because of her advocacy for women’s education.
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