(MENAFN- Arab Times) A US drone strike killed at least 15 Pakistani militants in Afghanistan's Gomal district on Wednesday, intelligence officials said on Friday, part of an intensifying drone campaign against Pakistani militants in Afghanistan. Three Pakistani intelligence officials confirmed Wednesday's strike in an area bordering Pakistan's South Waziristan region. "Fifteen dead bodies of killed militants will be shifted soon to their native areas in Dera Ismail Khan," one intelligence official said, referring to a town in northwestern Pakistan.

Three officials confirmed the 15 militants belonged to the Gandapur faction of the Pakistani Taleban led by Mullah Fazlullah, who claimed responsibility for the massacre of more than 130 pupils at an army-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar last December.

Tracking of drone strikes in Afghanistan is patchy - many of them take place in remote regions and are not reported - but Taleban commanders say that fighters there have been increasingly targeted since late last year. The strikes come a week after Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to end a blame game over a spate of militant attacks and work to restore trust.

Traditionally hostile neighbors, the two countries accuse each other of doing too little to prevent Taleban fighters and other Islamist militants from operating on their territory. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani made closer ties with Pakistan a priority when he took office last year, hoping Islamabad could push Afghan Taleban leaders to the negotiating table to end Afghanistan's long war