KABUL: (MEP) At least 16 people have lost their lives when US-led foreign forces carried out separate drone strikes in eastern province of Nangarhar.
Two aerial attacks struck Abdulkhel and Bandar areas of Achin district in the province, which is located 120 kilometers (74 miles) east of the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Friday night and Saturday noon, leaving six members of the ISIS militant group dead, Attaullah Khogyani said.
He added that an ISIS militant commander, identified as Qari Wahhab, was killed in the airstrikes as well.
Khogyani further noted that 10 more people were killed on Friday night in a US-led drone attack in the same Afghan province, which has seen a rise in the presence of ISIS militants over the past months.
On January 19, a US drone strike in the Achin district of Nangarhar Province claimed the lives of three people. Local officials said an ISIS militant commander, identified as Qari Sajjad, and two of his comrades were killed in the airstrike.
The development came only three days after more than a dozen people were killed in a US drone attack in the same Afghan province.
The 201st Selab (Flood) Corps of the Afghan National Army announced in a statement that the aerial attack was conducted in the Dih Bala district of the province, identifying the deceased as 17 members of ISIS Takfiri militant group.
Washington has been conducting targeted killings through remotely-controlled armed drones in Somalia and Yemen.
The United States 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.
