US-led killer drone strikes kill over dozen in eastern Afghanistan

At least 16 people have lost their lives when US-led foreign forces carried out separate drone strikes in Afghanistan’s embattled eastern province of Nangarhar.

Attaullah Khogyani, the spokesman for the provincial governor, said two aerial assaults struck Abdulkhel and Bandar areas of Achin district in the province, which is located 120 kilometers (74 miles) east of the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Friday night and Saturday noon, leaving six members of the Takfiri Daesh militant group dead.

He added that a Daesh militant commander, identified as Qari Wahhab, was killed in the airstrikes as well.

Khogyani further noted that 10 more people were killed on Friday night in a US-led drone attack in the same Afghan province, which has seen a rise in the presence of Daesh militants over the past months.

On January 19, a US drone strike in the Achin district of Nangarhar Province claimed the lives of three people. Local officials said a Daesh militant commander, identified as Qari Sajjad, and two of his comrades were killed in the airstrike.

The development came only three day after more than a dozen people were killed in a US drone attack in the same Afghan province.

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, identifying the deceased as 17 members of Daesh Takfiri militant group.

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 also been 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 in most cases been the victims of the attacks.