News / Afghanistan

New US drone raid kills 11 in eastern Afghanistan

Saturday, 16 January 2016 10:01 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 16 January 2016 10:02 AM ]

This file photo shows a US MQ-9 Reaper drone firing a Hellfire missile.

Afghan authorities say at least eleven people have lost their lives in a new US assassination drone strike in Afghanistan’s troubled eastern province of Nangarhar.

Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said the aerial attack took place Friday in the Achin district of the province, which is located 120 kilometers (74 miles) east of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

A commander of the Takfiri Daesh militant group, identified as Hafiz Saeed, and 10 others were killed in the airstrike. Khogyani said that the son of Mangal Bagh, another key Daesh commander, was among the slain terrorists.

Achin Governor Haji Ghalib Mujahid also said the drone strike hit “a house where Daesh militants were holding a meeting.”

On January 2, at least five people lost their lives in a US drone strike in the Shaigal district of Afghanistan’s northeastern province of Kunar.

Provincial governor Wahidullah Kalimzai said five members of the Pakistan-based Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group were killed in the assault.

A US drone attack on the Alishing district of the eastern province of Laghman on December 29, 2015 left at least two people dead. An official said two local commanders of the Taliban militant group were killed in the airstrike.

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 in most cases been the victims of the attacks.

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

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