News / Afghanistan

Five people killed in US drone strike in northeast Afghanistan

Sunday, 03 January 2016 5:14 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 03 January 2016 6:40 AM ]

This file photo shows a US MQ-1 Predator drone, armed with Hellfire missiles, in flight.

Authorities in Afghanistan say at least five people have lost their lives in a US drone strike in the Asian country’s northeastern province of Kunar.

Provincial governor, Wahidullah Kalimzai, said the drone attack took place in the Shaigal district of the province, located about 205 kilometers (125 miles) east of the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Saturday.

He added that five members of the Pakistan-based Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group were killed in the assault.

On December 29, 2015, a US drone attack on the Alishing district of the eastern province of Laghman left at least two people dead. Sarhadi Zwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said two local commanders of the Taliban militant group were killed in the airstrike.

The development came a week after three people lost their lives when a US drone targeted Ghani Khel district of Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar. Colonel Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal, a spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial police department, identified the deceased as members of a local 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 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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