Afghanistan: US drone strikes kill five 'Taliban'

KABUL, Afghanistan 

At least five suspected Taliban militants have been killed and two others have been injured in two U.S. drone strikes in eastern Afghanistan over the course of two days, Afghan security officials said on Tuesday.

According to provincial police chief, General Abdul Habib Saeedkhil, a U.S. drone opened fired at a suspected Taliban hideout in Shigal district’s Shonkorok Valley on Monday that left at least three militants dead.

Another drone attack in Nazian district of Nangarhar province killed two militants and wounded two others on Sunday, Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal of the provincial police office, said.

Mashriqiwal added that Afghan security forces were also engaging with militants in an operation in the same district.

According to local officials, U.S.-led international forces have carried out 17 drone strikes in the past one month in eastern Nangarhar province.

“At least 245 militants, including Taliban and Daesh fighters have been killed in the past one month by drone strikes,” spokesman for provincial governor, Ahmad Zia Alizai, said. “150 of those killed were Daesh affiliated fighters,” Alizai added.

A suspected Daesh leader Hafiz Saeed was killed along with 30 of his fighters in a U.S. drone strike in Nangarhar on July 10.