New US drone strike kills 12 in eastern Afghanistan

Thursday, 06 August 2015 1:42 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 06 August 2015 1:42 PM ]

An AFP file photo shows a US Predator unmanned drone armed with a missile on the tarmac of Kandahar military airport in Afghanistan.

A fresh US drone strike has claimed lives of at least a dozen people and injured several others in the troubled eastern Afghanistan, Press TV reports.

The casualties were caused after an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) belonging to the US military struck an area on the outskirts of Pul-i- Alam, the provincial capital of Afghanistan’s eastern Logar Province, on Wednesday night.

Local officials confirmed that at least 12 people had lost their lives and eight others were injured in the attack, saying the victims were all militants, including a Taliban commander identified as Mullah Abdul Wahid.

The Taliban militant group has not commented on the report.

This came after six drone strikes carried out by US drones in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar killed at least 75 people late on Tuesday.

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) regularly uses drones for airstrikes and spying missions in Afghanistan as well as Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt near the Afghan border, among other places.

While senior American civilian and military officials claim the targets of the attacks are militants, witnesses maintain that, in most cases, civilians have been the victims of the airstrikes.

Washington has been carrying out drone operations in several countries, including Afghanistan - without authorization from the United Nations.

Eight killed in bombing

In a separate development on Thursday, at least eight people died and a dozen others were injured after a bomber exploded a truck loaded with explosives outside the local council’s building in Pul-i-Alam.

Afghan security forces inspect a damaged vehicle at the site of a bomb blast that targeted NATO forces in Kabul on July 7, 2015. (© AFP)

Local security sources say at least three police officers were among the victims.

The massive bomb attack inflicted damage on several nearby buildings and blew out windows 500 meters away.

The militancy-riddled country faces a security challenge nearly 14 years after the United States and its allies invaded the country in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror.

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