Kabul, September 4 (RHC)-- At least 32 people have lost their lives in a U.S. assassination drone strike in Afghanistan's eastern province of Paktia. The Afghan army's 203rd Military Corps said in a statement that the drone hit Gharak area in the province's Ahmadabad district, situated 200 kilometers southwest of the capital, Kabul, on Thursday. The statement added that three people were also wounded in the airstrike.

On August 26th, an aerial assault against an area in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar claimed the lives of at least three members of one family. In a similar incident, local authorities said at least seven people were killed after U.S. drones pounded the Chak and Day Mirdad districts of Maidan Wardak Province.

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, among other places.

Washington has been conducting targeted killings through the remotely-controlled armed drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.

The U.S. 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 U.S. drone attacks are "targeted killings" that flout international law.