PESHAWAR, Aug 4: The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) has announced the death of its leader Uthman Adil in a US drone strike in North Waziristan a few months ago.

The announcement was made in an Uzbek language statement posted on the group’s website. The IMU mainly comprises Uzbek militants from Uzbekistan, but militants of Turkish origin are also part of it.

Site Intelligence, a US-based monitoring group, quoting the IMU statement said Adil’s deputy, Uthman Ghazi, had been made the new leader.

In April, a Pakistani security official had confirmed Adil’s death. Media reports at the time had said that a drone strike at an abandoned school in Miramshah, headquarters of North Waziristan, had killed four suspected militants.

Earlier, Qari Tohir Yaldashev, who headed the IMU since its relocation to the volatile South Waziristan after fleeing Afghanistan in the wake of the US-led invasion in 2001, was killed in a drone strike on Aug 29, 2009.

Yaldashev had fought Pakistani forces in the Wana region of South Waziristan before being driven out in 2007 by the Waziri tribe led by a native commander, Maulvi Mohammad Nazir.

The IMU first moved to the Mehsud tribal land before relocating to North Waziristan.

“This is another major blow to the IMU,” the security official said. “The IMU has a significant presence in North Waziristan and has been at the forefront of many assaults on security forces,” he said.