US drone strike leaves three dead in eastern Afghanistan

At least three people have lost their lives in a US assassination drone strike in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar.

Attaullah Khogyani, the spokesman for the provincial governor, said the aerial assault targeted a vehicle as it was traveling in the Achin district of the province, which is located 120 kilometers (74 miles) east of the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Tuesday afternoon.

He added that a Daesh militant commander, identified as Qari Sajjad, and two of his comrades were killed in the airstrike.

The development came only three days after more than a dozen people were killed in a US drone attack in the same Afghan province, which has seen a rise in the presence of Daesh militants over the past months.

The 201st Selab (Flood) Corps of the Afghan National Army announced in a statement that the aerial attack was conducted in the Dih Bala district of the province on Saturday, saying that seventeen members of Daesh Takfiri militant group were killed in the raid.

On January 15, a US drone attack in the Achin district of Nangarhar Province left at least 11 people dead. A Daesh militant commander, identified as Hafiz Saeed, was killed in the airstrike alongside ten of his comrades.

The CIA spy agency regularly uses drones for airstrikes and spying missions in Afghanistan as well as Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt near the Afghan border.

Washington has been also conducting targeted killings through remotely-controlled armed drones in Somalia and Yemen.

The United States says the airstrikes target members of al-Qaeda and other militants, but according to local officials and witnesses, civilians have been the victims of the attacks in most cases.