Pakistani officials say the brother of an Afghan warlord tied to the Taliban has been killed in a U.S. missile strike in northwestern Pakistan.
Authorities say Mohammed Haqqani was killed Thursday in the attack in the Dandey Darpa Khel area of North Waziristan. Three other people were also reported killed in the strike in the lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border.
Haqqani is the brother of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the senior leader of the Haqqani network, a militant group with ties to al-Qaida and the Taliban.
The suspected death of Mohammed Haqqani is the latest in a string of blows to militants operating in the region.
Afghan officials say two senior Taliban commanders who were acting as "shadow governors" in northern Afghanistan were arrested Thursday in Pakistan.
Officials say the two "shadow governors," Mullah Mohammad and Mullah Abdul Salam, were working in Kunduz and Baghlan provinces.
They took on the roles of governing the provinces without the authority of the central Afghan government in Kabul.
Meanwhile, Pakistani officials say they have arrested at least three al-Qaida-linked militants in Karachi.
The arrests come just days after U.S. and Pakistani officials announced the arrest of Mullah Abdul Ghani, known as Mullah Baradar - the Taliban's top operational commander.
Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Friday that his country will continue to crack down on militants who cross into Pakistan from Afghanistan.
But he also said high-value prisoners, like Mullah Baradar, will not be turned over to the U.S. Malik said the militants will either be tried in Pakistan or returned to their country of origin.
Elsewhere, Pakistani authorities say a bomb blast killed at least 29 people near a mosque in the Khyber region near the Afghan border.
And officials in the southwestern province of Baluchistan said four Pakistani employees of a Western aid agency are missing.
The four work for U.S.-based Mercy Corps. Officials and the charity fear they have been kidnapped.
Officials say they were last seen in the Qila Saifullah district, about 200 kilometers north of the provincial capital of Quetta.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
