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US drone strike leaves eight dead in north Afghanistan

This file photo shows a US MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle. ©Reuters

At least eight people have been killed in a drone strike by US forces in Afghanistan’s northern province of Kunduz.

Ghulam Hazrat Karimi, an army spokesman, said the aerial attack was conducted in the Archi district of the province, which is located 250 km (155 miles) north of the country’s capital, Kabul, the previous night.

Karimi identified the deceased as members of the Taliban militant group, noting that a militant commander, identified as Qari Ali, was among those killed.

Taliban militants, however, have made no comments on the fatal airstrike so far.

On April 30, 15 people were killed after an airstrike targeted a hideout of the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group in the Haska Mina of the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, bordering Pakistan.

The development came a day after 17 people were killed in a drone strike carried out by US-led foreign forces in Dih Bala district of the same province.

Local Afghan officials said that those killed in the aerial attack were Daesh extremists.

Afghanistan, parts of which have long been considered a bastion of Taliban, has recently been seeing the emergence and expansion of Daesh. Nangarhar, in particular, is one area where Daesh has visibly gained a foothold.

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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