U.S. strike in Afghanistan kills 21, mostly civilians

A U.S. drone strike against ISIS in Afghanistan killed at least 21 people on Wednesday, possibly including some civilians, Afghan officials said.

Civilians casualties in U.S. air strikes have long been a source of friction between the Afghan government and Western allies fighting the Taliban-led insurgency since 2001.

The strike in Nangarhar province, on the eastern border with Pakistan, killed 21 people, at least three of them civilians, and wounded another 11, according to Malem Mashooq, the governor of Achin district where the attack occurred.

One of the wounded said that the attack struck a house where people were sleeping after a gathering to welcome a local elder who had recently returned from the Hajj pilgrimage.

"I saw dead and wounded bodies everywhere,” Raghon Shinwari said, lying on a hospital bed in Jalalabad city.

Mohammed Ali, the Achin district police chief corroborated that account.

"They were in a house to visit someone who had just come from the Hajj pilgrimage," he said. "A drone targeted the house and killed most of them."

Provincial police spokesman Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal said several ISIS leaders had been killed, but he denied there were any noncombatants among the victims.

A spokesman for the U.S. military command in Kabul confirmed that U.S. forces conducted a "counter-terrorism" air strike in Achin, but would not discuss the details of the target.

"U.S. Forces - Afghanistan takes all allegations of civilian casualties very seriously," said Brigadier General Charles Cleveland.

"We are aware of some claims of Afghan casualties, and are currently reviewing all materials related to this strike. We are continuing to look into these allegations."

Local Afghan sources said the US drone attack left at least 25 civilian casualties.

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.




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