At least two people have been killed and several others severely injured in a fresh strike by a US killer drone in the troubled eastern Afghanistan, security sources say.
Local Afghan security officials said on Tuesday that the attack took place in volatile Kunar Province.
At least 10 others, including women, were also wounded in the deadly strike. The injured have been shifted to a local hospital to receive medical treatment.
Local security sources also said all the victims were members of the Taliban militant group. However, the militant group has not commented on the deaths yet.
US officials claim that the airstrikes target militants, but local sources say civilians have been the main victims of the attacks.
Many civilians have lost their lives in US-led strikes and operations in various parts of Afghanistan over the past years, with Afghans becoming increasingly outraged at the seemingly endless number of the deadly assaults.
Civilian casualties caused by foreign forces have been a major source of tension between Kabul and Washington.
The United States regularly uses drones for attacks and spying missions in Afghanistan, as well as in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt near the Afghan border, among other places.
US drone strikes have escalated significantly over the past year, fueling anti-American sentiment in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
The United Nations says the US-operated drone strikes in Pakistan and some other countries pose a growing challenge to the rule of international law. The UN and several human rights organizations have already identified the US as the world’s number one user of “targeted killings,” largely due to its drone attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The airstrikes were initiated under former US president George W. Bush, but have been escalated under incumbent President Barack Obama.
JR/AB
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