The Pakistani Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah was killed in a U.S.-Afghan airstrike, according to a senior Afghan Defense Ministry official on Friday.

“I confirm that Mullah Fazlullah, leader of the Pakistani Taliban, has been killed in a joint air operation on the border area of Marawera district of Kunar province,” Mohammad Radmanish, a spokesman for Afghan’s defense ministry, told Reuters.

The airstrike, which occurred at about 9 a.m. local time on Thursday in Afghanistan on the border between neighboring Pakistan, was aimed at a senior militant figure in the region of Kunar. U.S. officials are saying the target was Fazlullah, according to U.S. Forces-Afghanistan spokesman, Lt. Col. Martin O’Donnell.

The Taliban leader was Pakistan’s most wanted extremist after becoming the leader of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in November 2013. He was responsible for the infamous shooting against schoolgirl and women’s education advocate Malala Yousafzai, who survived the attack and went on to win a Nobel Peace Prize. Fazlullah also orchestrated a school attack in 2014 that killed 132 children in Pakistan.

Pakistani and U.S. relations have long been strained due to accusations against the U.S. and Afghanistan that they do not do enough to stop TTP on the Afghan side of the turbulent Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

The U.S. offered a $5 million reward in March for any information about the whereabouts of Fazlullah. (RELATED: US Rocket Strike Blows More Than 50 Taliban Leaders To Bits, Military Reveals)

The death of Fazlullah triggers hope at easing strained relations between Islamabad and the U.S. The United States is convinced that Pakistan harbors Afghan Taliban leaders on their side of the border, but Pakistan denies such allegations. Still, Pakistan could be the key to convincing the Taliban to disarm and end the 17-year-old war in Afghanistan.

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