US drone strike in Afghanistan kills 25

A US drone strike has killed 25 in the restive eastern Afghan province of Nanagarhar, the third such deadly attack in four days. 

According to Afghan officials, the deadly air raids targeted a Taliban militants’ hideout in the Deh Bala district of the troubled province on Wednesday night.

The deadly attacks came one day after at least 43 militants lost their lives in two separate US drone attacks in Nangarhar.

Hussain Mashriqwal, Nangarhar provincial police spokesman Hazrat, said that at least 18 people were killed in Achin District while 25 others lost their lives in Haska Mina District.

ISIL leader in Afghanistan, Shahidullah Shahid, who was formerly a spokesman for the Taliban in Pakistan, was among those slain in the Achin district, Afghan broadcaster TOLOnews reported.

Washington has recently stepped up its drone attacks in Nangarhar.

The US employs unmanned aerial vehicles in an alleged bid to target terrorists in Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Somalia. This is while local officials and witnesses say that the drone strikes have mostly left civilians dead over the past few years.

The United Nations and several human rights organizations have identified the US as the world's number one user of "targeted killings," largely due to its drone attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Meanwhile, in a statement released on Thursday, Afghan Interior Ministry said that at least 30 Taliban elements were killed and several others arrested over the past 24 hours in Afghan forces’ operation against the militants in several provinces across the war-stricken Asian country.

The operation, which was carried out in the provinces of Faryab, Kandahar, Zabul, Helmand, Logar, Arzegan and Midan Wardak, also wounded 40 Taliban members, the statement added.

Noting that the operation is still underway, the statement went on to say that Afghan troops have seized weapons belonging to the Taliban militant group.

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