Kabul, February 19 (RHC)-- Authorities in Afghanistan say more than a dozen people have lost their lives in a U.S. drone strike carried out in the country’s eastern province of Nangarhar.  A spokesman for the provincial police department said on Thursday that the drone attack took place about 120 kilometers east of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

A provincial security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, identified the dead as members of the Taliban militant group, noting that they were from Pakistan’s mountainous northwestern region of Waziristan.

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 also been conducting targeted killings through remotely-controlled armed drones in Somalia and Yemen.

The United States says the airstrikes only target members of al-Qaeda and other militants, but according to local officials and witnesses, civilians have been the main victims of the attacks.