NATO Spy Drone Goes Down in Central Afghanistan
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) belonging to the US-led NATO has reportedly gone down in Afghanistan’s central province of Parwan.
Saifullah Baidar, a provincial administrative chief, said on Wednesday that the drone crashed in the Kohi Safi district of the province, located 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) northeast of the capital, Kabul, at around 10 pm local time (1730 GMT) on Tuesday.
He said the drone was on a surveillance mission in the area when it crashed.
Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed the group’s fighters had brought downed the unmanned aircraft.
Separately, Afghan authorities said two people have lost their lives in a US drone strike in the Asian country’s troubled eastern province of Nangarhar.
Colonel Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal, a spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial police department, said the aerial attack took place in the Momand Dara district of the province, which is located 120 kilometers (74 miles) east of the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Tuesday afternoon, and that those killed in the assault were members of the Taliban militant group, Press TV reported.
The CIA spy agency regularly uses drones for airstrikes and spying missions in Afghanistan as well as Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt near the Afghan border.
Washington has been also conducting targeted killings through remotely-controlled armed drones in Somalia and Yemen. The US says the airstrikes target members of al-Qaeda and other militants, but according to local officials and witnesses, civilians have in most cases been the victims of the attacks.
The United Nations says the US drone attacks are “targeted killings” that flout international law.