Haqqani spiritual leader killed in U.S. drone strike on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa seminary

A senior spiritual leader of the Haqqani network has been reportedly killed in a U.S. drone strike on Thursday when four missiles were fired at a seminary in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region of Pakistan.

Some sources from the network confirmed that their spiritual leader, Maulana Ahmad Jan, was among those killed at the seminary, the Daily Times reports.

The local security officials also identified two of the dead as Jan and Mufti Hameedullah, and claimed that they both were the members of the Haqqani network, the report added.

The religious seminary in the Hangu district is said to be the rest base for militants fighting NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Earlier this month, the network's chief financier, Nasirudddin Haqqani, was gunned down in a village on the edge of Islamabad, the report added.

The latest strike was the first time a U.S. drone had hit a district inside Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, outside the tribal regions of Pakistan that have been frequently targeted by unmanned air strikes.

Pakistan strongly condemned the U.S. drone strike targeting a religious seminary, as it came a day after the country officials announced that America has confirmed that it will not conduct drone strikes during the Taliban peace talks.