News / Afghanistan

Fresh US assassination drone raid kills two in eastern Afghanistan

Wednesday, 30 December 2015 10:17 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 30 December 2015 10:17 AM ]

In this file photo, a US Predator drone armed with a missile stands on the tarmac of Kandahar military airport, Afghanistan. (AFP photo)

Afghan authorities say at least two people have lost their lives in a US assassination drone strike in the country’s troubled eastern province of Laghman.

Sarhadi Zwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said on Wednesday that the aerial attack took place in the Alishing district of the province, located 260 kilometers (161 miles) east of the capital, Kabul, the previous day.

He added that two local commanders of the Taliban militant group were killed in the assault.

Earlier this month, a US drone attack against Ghani Khel district of the Afghan province of Nangarhar left at least three people dead. Colonel Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal, a spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial police department, said the victims were members of a local militant group.

On November 24, two people were also killed when a US unmanned aerial vehicle pounded Momand Dara district of the same province.

Three people were also killed on November 7, when a US drone struck Ghani Khel district in Nangarhar Province.

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 US 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.

The United Nations says the US drone attacks are “targeted killings” that flout international law.

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