Kabul, July 30 (RHC)-- At least 15 people have been killed and several others injured in a series of U.S. drone strikes in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar. The attacks were reportedly carried out against anti-government militants in the province’s Harun Baba district, local Afghan officials said on Wednesday night.

The U.S. 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 claims that the targets of the drone attacks are militants, but local officials and witnesses maintain that civilians have been the main victims of the attacks over the past few years.

Senior Afghan officials have repeatedly criticized Washington for its drone strikes. Hundreds of civilians are believed to have been killed and many others wounded in attacks by the unmanned aerial vehicles in the country over the past few years.