US Drone Attack Kills Afghan Civilians in East
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A US airstrike in Afghanistan Friday in the eastern province of Nangarhar caused several civilian casualties, government spokesmen said.
The strike reportedly targeted the home of Mawlawi Mohammad Alam, a Taliban commander in the Sherzad district, said Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor, adding that there were casualties but he could not confirm numbers.
A police official said the strike was carried out by an unmanned aircraft and killed four people inside the house.
A dozen wounded civilians, among them seven children and five women, were taken to the local hospital, said Najibullah Kamawal, the director of provincial health services, four of them in critical condition.
US forces had carried out a strike in Sherzad Friday in defense of "friendly forces", a spokesman for the NATO-led Resolute Support mission said in Kabul, the capital, but gave no details. Reports of civilian casualties would be investigated, he added.
The people of Afghanistan have been suffering from violence and insecurity since the US and its allies invaded the country as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror in 2001. Many parts of the country still remain plagued by militancy despite the presence of foreign troops. The military invasion removed Taliban, but militants still push to wrest control over the war-ravaged country.
