KABUL, Afghanistan
Two Afghani Taliban officials and 44 other militants were killed by a U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, some 150 km east of the capital Kabul, on Friday, Afghan authorities said Saturday.
The strike targeted a hideout of suspected Taliban insurgents overnight in Achin district near the border with Pakistan.
“Coalition forces drone strikes in different districts of Nangarhar province have killed 45 Taliban insurgents, including two prominent commanders, Abdullah and Meya Saheb,” the Afghan Ministry of Defense said.
Taliban group sources were not immediately available for comment.
In a similar attack in March, the Taliban group’s military commander, Mullah Hasti Gul and deputy district governor, Mullah Ramanullah, were killed in the same area.
The U.S. has intensified drone strikes on Taliban and al-Qaeda militants’ sanctuaries in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2015 amid increasing Taliban attacks on Afghan and foreign targets as part of the group’s “spring offensive.”
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