US-led airstrike takes the lives of 16 civilians in eastern Afghanistan

YemenExtra

M.A.

An air raid conducted by foreign forces in Afghanistan has killed at least 16 civilians in the eastern province of Nangarhar, which borders Pakistan.

According to TOLO News, the air raid targeted a civilian vehicle in Haska Mina district late on Thursday. Women and children were among the victims.

Nangarhar governor’s spokesman Attaullah Khogyani also confirmed the casualties.

It was not immediately clear the aircraft that conducted the strike belonged to which country.

The United States currently has about 8,400 soldiers in Afghanistan with another 5,000 troops from NATO allies.

Every so often, US air raids kill both Afghan soldiers and civilians across the country. In June, at least three Afghan border police officers faced death in US airstrikes in Helmand province. Back in February, American airstrikes also slaughtered 22  civilians in the same province.

Last August, a US drone attack took the lives of 22 Afghan soldiers in Helmand, and in September that year airstrikes conducted by American warplanes killed at least eight Afghan troops in the central province of Uruzgan.

In recent months, airstrikes by US warplanes have also significantly increased against the purported positions of the Taliban militant group and other terror outfits in the crisis-hit country.

Despite the presence of thousands of foreign boots on the ground, Afghanistan has been a victim of an increase in terrorist attacks, some of them carried out by the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group mainly active in Nangarhar province.